Debugged
by FlyingMidgetProductions
Summary: If you were me, you wouldn't play Minecraft. I have seen things that shouldn't be seen by anyone else - I have endured things that no one should ever have to. Most importantly, all I have endured was never meant to be seen by the creators. This my account of how I somehow broke into Minecraft and what it used to be.
1. No Surprises

They say that everything has to be endless.

_They_ say that everything has to be pure.

Well, I don't like. I don't _agree_ with it.

People will continue to say that "the past is over, it is time to move on and be who you are."

Sure, you can say that, but I have seen things. Things that no one else was meant to see, and I still don't know why _I_ had to see them, of all people.

I guess I'll start with when I started to play the game in the beginning - all that time ago.

It went something like this...

_**Chapter I: No Surprises**_

_****_Something that should be noted, first of all, is that I really only knew two people out of the few friends I had who played _Minecraft_. They were junkies on it and pressured me into joining it. The more they talked about it, the more I became interested. I wasn't really an avid gamer since I gave up on it a while ago to try and better my drawing skills. Eventually, my Christmas vacation had arrived, and I had nothing better to do. One of my friends, named Garth, gifted me _Minecraft_ and told me to try and make my own world before going online.

The interesting thing I noticed at first was the interaction with nature. With my art, I often would just draw whatever came to mind and _somehow_ blend it in with nature and stuff. You know, like trees and fields. The animals in the area added to the immersion (sort of) and I felt I wouldn't be disappointed after all this time. I began to go through what my friends told me to do, and soon I had my own little dirt hut.

Over the break, I began to expand my home. It started going towards the underground where, for some unknown reason, I trapped a ton of animals there, particularly pigs. Eventually, I began to start building upwards until I gave up out of sheer boredom and began to develop some convoluted device to kill the pigs and then store the pork chops in chests that I stacked up. Sound impossible? Oh, trust me. It was.

On the last day of my Christmas break, I had begun to craft the device, which I dubbed _The Pork Paladin_, with the redstone that I had spent the previous two days mining. The device started at a large 10x10 pen full of pigs. There was a door that I would use redstone to open and close. The pigs would then travel through said door into _another_ pen where they would be killed by traps. The pork chops would then be stored in the chests that I placed beside the pen.

It sounds _fantastic_ on paper, but it failed completely.

It was late at night as I was deconstructing the device and trying to decide what I wanted to do next.

After the failed _Pig Paladin_ was done, I began to lead the pigs to the surface. It was much more difficult than I had expected, so I decided that the best solution would be to dig a new tunnel outwards. The pigs, though disobedient most of the time, stayed with me in the general area of the tunnel. I had to take down some of the torches that I placed in my upper house in order to see in the tunnel.

It was then that I realized I had _no idea_ where the hell I was going.

I had to dig up, or I would only make getting these stupid pigs out more difficult. I did the usual stairs and began to think that killing the stupid animals would make things a hell of a lot easier. The stairs were moving along smoothly, though, so I wasn't to that point of rage quite yet.

As I was almost to the top - as I was mining that one last row of dirt blocks - a great wave flowed over me. I was sent backwards in a rush of water. I remembered _clearly _gasping for air. I would repeatedly push my body against the dirt stairs to try and stop, but the dirt only gave way as I kept tumbling downwards. I even remember hitting the freaking pigs, their annoying little "oinks" as they began to drown in the flood.

How the hell did I screw up this badly? How did I not even think to see if a lake would be above me?

This is what I got for starting _Minecraft_. Then again, there was still more to it that kept me pressing onwards.

When I stopped, I was at where the _Pig Paladin_ had been initially built. Only one or two pigs survived, so I killed them and used their pork chops for health. I decided to start heading back up to my home, perhaps, put back up the stupid torches, and get off this stupid game. The house I made was _horrible_ looking and I didn't even want to continue on at this point. Maybe Garth or Ed could show me some more on how to actually play this game, but at this point I was done.

Actually, no I wasn't, since I wasn't freaking alone either.

When I got up to my house, I began to hear moans and sounds and stuff. The sky was dark, so I guessed it was night. I was about to put up a door (I thought I had a door when, really, I didn't even know how to make one) and the torches when another strong force hit me. I freaked out as I watched my replenished health deplete to nearly nothing. The ground around me was gone and smoke filled the house.

Was that the creeper that my friends were talking about? They always had to mention this stupid little green thing that would destroy all that you worked hard for. They would always say "you don't know true anger until you encounter a creeper." Trust me, I've been angrier, but this still pissed me the hell off. I got back up and tried to see where the hell I was since there were still no torches. I put up a few and found myself back in the area with the stupid pens and such.

Oh no, that wasn't the end of it, though!

There were more of those stupid creatures! You know, the creepers? Those stupid little green things with the stupid little legs and stupid moan and that?

Yeah, there were more! A _lot_ more!

I began to scurry around, digging into the walls in order to protect myself from them as they approached. At this time I didn't know about killing them with just my hand. Stupid little me thought I _had_ to have weapons. So I kept running into the walls, putting up walls of dirt behind me to keep me from my first demise.

The creepers, though, weren't slowing down. They kept blowing up the walls, and getting closer, and moaning that stupid little moan!

I kept digging, trying to keep my distance. The time was almost to midnight, so I knew that I needed to get the hell out of this game and go to sleep for school. The problem was that I couldn't! Not that I was trapped, though. The whole situation was hypnotizing. I couldn't look away from the screen while I ran away. The light of my monitor was giving me a headache as I refused to blink at all.

Eventually, I stopped digging upon reaching a large, dungeon-like area. The advice that Garth had given me rung in my head.

"If you get far enough away, they'll give up."

So I did. I kept running. I ran through the dungeon, putting up torches everywhere, until I was far enough away to actually feel safe. I stopped and looked back across the dungeon, which was large (even though Ed said they were relatively small), and saw the silhouettes of those bastard creatures. Did Garth lie to me? Do they follow me no matter what? I continued to run like hall, traversing all these stupid tunnels until I knew I was too far down in the freaking place to even get back up safely. There was lava and diamond, but it was all useless to me, just like this freaking game.

The creepers continued following me, growling and hissing.

And _laughing_.

No, I never played this game before. I never even showed _interest_ in stupid little _Minecraft_. But I knew well enough that nothing in the game laughed like that. It wasn't really a Joker-type life, but it was a chuckle. A very deep, condescending laugh. I _knew_ it was coming from them. It got louder the closer they got.

This was the end for me. There was lava everywhere and I wasn't quite sure what the hell to do anymore.

Eventually I began throwing whatever dirt blocks I had in the lava to get away. When I ran out, I had reached a dead end.

The creepers, they were gaining on me. They were walking down the dirt path I had created, laughing and hissing and preparing to kill themselves for no goddamn reason.

For a second I thought I could punch them away, but kept missing and gave up. Finally, I decided that, as a last-ditch effort, I would push them into the lava. Sure, I might be killed in the process, but at least they would die as well. Those stupid little creatures didn't deserve the satisfaction of knowing that they killed me. I was better than that to let them.

So I threw my arms back and prepared to rush forward.

As I ran forward, though, the unexpected happened.

I heard something like a wave behind me. The creepers... their eyes filled with terror. A terror I didn't expect to see out of them. Why were the creatures acting abnormally? From what I knew, and what Garth and Ed told me, creepers didn't do anything but hiss and blow up. Why were they laughing and, you know, fearing? This wasn't right.

I froze as I saw a large red wave fly through the air above me. Nothing dropped on me, but I nearly broke down as I watched the creepers get washed away in the lava. They hisses some more, laughed, and then even _cried_. I stood there for a minute, trembling as I realized what I had just freaking done. Again, I knew it was impossible. Lava wasn't made to control - it was made to _kill_.

So how had I just sent a wave of it at the creepers?

Finally, the light of my monitor became too big a burden, and I turned the game off.

Yeah, _Minecraft _was stupid.

But what the hell happened?


	2. Silly Shenanigans and Maid Outfits

**_Chapter II: Silly Shenanigans and Maid Outfits_**

It must've been a week or so until I built up the nerve to try _Minecraft_ again. Honestly, why should I have gone back? I had no reason to. I wasn't getting any entertainment value out of the game. It didn't really interest me either. It must've been the odd sense that something was wrong. Something was _really_ wrong.

At school, I talked with Garth since Ed was on vacation somewhere in freaking Colorado. I told him about what happened and he didn't believe me at all first. Slowly I began to put in enough description that he began to believe me. He kept asking me to get pictures or videos or something to really prove it, but I kept telling him I didn't know how to do that. Then he told me to go into an online server and do the same thing.

I had to wait until the weekend to actually get a chance at the online stuff. When we got to where we wanted to go, we went to the bottom of the world like I had. We did what I had done and I tried to wave the lava while he watched from a distance.

Nothing.

I became incredibly pissed since Garth probably began thinking I was insane or something. I kept trying and telling him to stay, but he began making up stupid excuses like "I gotta eat dinner" or "I have homework to do" or "I'm done listening to your crap." I tell you, I was going ballistic at this point. I knew that I would start waving lava around in the air like it was some freaking flag once he left.

Instead, I didn't. The lava remained completely still.

"What gives?" I remember asking myself aloud.

Since I was alone, I got offline and went back to that same world that I made. You know, with the _Pig Paladin_ and stuff. I went back to where I had done that crazy stuff. I faced where the creepers stood and began punching, but nothing happened.

After a few tries, I saw drops of lava in front of me. They fell slowly and calmly before sizzling back in with the rest of its kind.

There we go! I had successfully done whatever that was called! Now to just do it again; this time, with more lava.

And so I did. Gradually the waves that I threw became bigger and bigger until I couldn't throw them anymore because the stupid cave was too freaking small. I was ecstatic because I _knew_ that I wasn't crazy. I had actually done that! I grabbed my phone off my bed and began to pull open my text messages to text Garth about what happened.

"Damn it, it's already eleven?" I said to myself. It was Friday night, and Garth was known for going to bed early on freaking weekends.

Since I still had Saturday and Sunday to figure this stuff out, I shut off _Minecraft_ and went to sleep.

_**The NEXT Day**_

Oh, man! This day was just the best and I'll tell you why!

I woke up at eight in the morning, something I have barely done before. I'd always plan on waking up early or staying up all night so that I got to hang out in the morning. That always put me in a good mood.

So when I woke up that morning, on Saturday, I had some time before going to hang out with Ed. I decided to open up _Minecraft_ and try the whole lava thing again. I did the same thing that I did the previous night with punching. The lava flew through the air so quickly that I thought I was becoming a crazy master and all!

Once it was time to meet with Ed, I got on my bike and began riding to the nearby mall. On the inside, we went to some obscure burger place that sold the best fries. There we talked about the girls we wanted to date or what we wanted to do the upcoming summer.

Oh, right. Every summer we _always_ did something. Last summer we went to Maine. The summer before that we went to freaking London. Ed's family was made of money, so we were always covered. Now I feel a little greedy, but I was in high school back then. All people in high school was greedy, whether they like it or not.

After a lot of time passed and we were about go home, I decided to bring up what happened in _Minecraft_.

"You were waving lava around like a waterbender? Dude, you can't do that. Were you smoking something or something or, like, how did you do it?" He asked me in some dumb way. The guy was socially awkward and a bad conversationalist. A cool dude, though.

"Hear me out! I was cornered by a bunch of creepers and they were straight up _laughing_ at me. Creepers don't laugh, do they?"

The look on his face was priceless. It was a "Are you f***ing kidding me?" type look.

"Did you have a mod or something?"

"I don't know anything about mods."

"Did you show Garth?"

"Yeah, but he didn't believe me."

The conversation literally just dropped off there. I wanted to prove to them both what had happened, but there wasn't any proper way to. I was stuck with the thought that I had somehow broken _Minecraft_.

That night I went back on with a crazy thought. Since lava and water are very similar, could I do the same thing that I did with lava, but with water instead? There was that massive lake that I drowned all those piggies in, so I used that to experiment. I walked over to it and faced that sorry excuse for a house I made. I began wildly punching forward like some sort of weakling caught in a knife fight. Eventually I stopped after realizing how worked up I was getting on trying to move water without touching it.

After trying repeatedly, I began swimming around in the lake maniacally like a fish out of water while the sun began to set. Once it hit night I would get off and sleep. I watched as the sun disappeared and the moon rose. It was a cool thing they added to the game. If I ever make a game, I'll be sure to add that in first of all. Well, maybe not first, but definitely somewhere towards the beginning.

Since it was now night, I began to walk back to my sorry excuse for a freaking house before noticing something.

Not something, really. Some_one_.

Standing off in the distance, watching me.

No, it wasn't stupid "Herobrine" or whatever you call him. I know who he is and this wasn't him. They didn't have the glowing eyes. They didn't have that generic look. In fact, I think it was actually a girl. She had this ponytail and was in a maid outfit, I think. It was night so I could barely see anything out in the open. She stared at me, though, and I stared back. I began to feel all gushy inside, like "Some girl is in _my_ world? Lucky day!"

So I did what all mature, growing boys do and chased her away.

She kept running. She never stopped or turned. We began swimming across this big as hell lake and ended up in some freaking desert. There were cacti and stuff, so I knew it was the desert. She kept running, though. Hell, she even hit the cacti on purpose. I laughed a bit before noticing something odd.

From my experiences with playing with Garth online, when someone got hurt, they blinked red.

She didn't. She hit the cacti and nothing happened. Nothing at all.

This peaked my interest. I kept chasing her until she stopped, dug into the ground, and a massive pit formed underneath her. It was like a bunch of stairs leading into the underground. There was a metal door and all. I chased her into that hallway she went into and followed down. We must've been under the ocean or lake or something cause I came by these windows that showed water on the other side.

Did that girl make all of this? If so, that's impressive. I kept following her.

I turned left and found her, standing in the corner, facing me.

She _was_ wearing the maid outfit, and looked freaking hot in it too! Man, I began approaching her, telling her it was all right, but she just stared. She never replied to my messages. I began to feel dirty and all, but I couldn't stop myself. I was about a few inches away from her. She wasn't fighting, though, so she must've wanted it.

Then suddenly, out of the freaking blue, I was somehow freaking disconnected!

What a freaking coincidence that that happens right as I'm about to kiss her!

Then I realized how sad my life was that I was excited over kissing a fake girl.

I went to sleep, disappointed.

The next day I would get back on and bring Garth and Ed over to see what I was talking about. Let's just say that things weren't too pretty afterwards.


	3. The Eyes

**FlyingMidgetProductions: This is not me, but a friend of mine who relayed the story to me. Whether or not it is true I have yet to determine for myself, but the amount of detail and proof he has provided me says otherwise. I'll continue to upload his account of the events that occurred about a year ago.**

**_Chapter III: The Eyes_  
**

**__**For a little while I began to think about that girl heavily. She was in my freaking dreams, she was all I thought about. It slowly got to the point where I couldn't even focus on schoolwork like I was supposed to because I was thinking about her. I never talked to her, but she looked nice and I liked that. I decided eventually that I would go and find her again, but this time, I would bring Ed and Garth with me. No, they wouldn't play, they would just _watch_ and see what I've been dealing with all this time.

Yeah, I know I said it was the next day last time, but it was more of a two to three day break that separated these events.

So when I began, I was sitting in front of my monitor, Garth to my left and Ed to my right. They were sitting on these two black metal chairs that I found in the basement or something while I took the actual desk chair or whatever you wanna call it. We were comfortable and prepared for anything.

I loaded up my world and began to look around to see if anything was different. After finding that nothing much had changed (just a few trees were chopped down is all) I decided to first show them the thing with the lava. I went down into the cave where the creepers chased me and prepared to go and start flinging lava freaking everywhere. The further down I went and the more confident I became, the more curious both Garth and Ed became. They actually started to believe me.

But we weren't to that point quite yet. Why?

Because _somehow_ the freaking lava was gone. I have no idea how, it was just gone!

No, there weren't any stupid blocks or whatever covering it, it had legitimately disappeared. There was just solid bedrock.

Even though I couldn't show them the cool lava trick, this whole deal with the lava just became incredibly bizarre. They were shocked and unsettled to the point where we had to take a break. Sounds a bit drastic? You haven't even met them yet. They are both a bunch of wussies.

I went back up to the surface and decided that the next ideal thing to do would be to find that strange lab place that I followed the girl to. It was still in the desert and the location was still visible, so I took it she wasn't hiding anymore. I went down into the mine while Garth and Ed became more paranoid on what would happen. Bunch of wussies.

I went to the hall where I had cornered her, but she wasn't there. I began traversing the rest of the freaking lab only to find it barren. There was nothing, not even a single resource or tool left behind by her! Garth began saying that since there wasn't anything there that we should just give up and do something else. I said no and continued to explore.

Something that I _did_ eventually find, though, was a black chest. Not the regular brown color, but straight up black. I opened it up and found it to be completely full of those eyes from the Endermen. There were a bunch and they were free, so I took 'em and began to explore a bit more. The whole place was like a freaking maze, though. It was made of red wool and such. It felt like a laboratory or factory through and through. That didn't last long, though. Slowly, the windows on the wall began to show lava. It startled me at first, but I began to feel comfortable knowing that there was still _some_ lava in the world.

The wool began to change, though. It changed from wool to Nether rack almost _instantly_. It scared the hell outta Ed and Garth. I admit, I was a bit startled as well, but I was used to this bizarre stuff happening. I pressed onwards.

I hit a dead end soon. It was a straight wall of bedrock. There _was_ a sign on it, though. The sign read:

_The seasons have come and gone, but time still remains_.

No sooner did the floor beneath completely give way. I began falling. The thing that bugged me was that there was no sound or explosion that caused it. It just disappeared. Anyway, I began falling down this long tube. I expected to hit bedrock soon, but I just continued falling.

And falling.

And _falling_.

I eventually hit the ground.

Then _that_ ground gave way and I kept falling.

Falling.

Finally, I was out of that forsaken tube and found myself in that one place that Garth and Ed always talked about going to. It was called The Nether, but I didn't know it at the time. The place was freaky and I thought I had literally been teleported to Hell.

I expected to land and have to run for my goddamn life, but nope.

I hit the lava and began burning. _Drowning_ and burning.

The whole place was a blur to me, but there was one particular thing I saw.

The girl in the maid outfit. She stood on top of a Nether rack platform and watched humorously. I heard her laughing, even though that shouldn't be possible in a game like this. I tried desperately to get out, but couldn't. There wasn't any land around me to save my goddamn life. I was doomed while Garth and Ed had backed up, not wanting to watch.

I tried to do the wave thing, but couldn't. Well, I sorta did. There was a small tide of lava, but since I was _in_ it it wasn't as effective.

"Game Over."

The words popped up on my screen. It was terrible, but I began to have a revelation right then and there.

The girl.

She wasn't friendly. She watched me die. She probably even set up that whole lab for me to get trapped in.

She doesn't want me there.

But I'm going back. I'm leaving Garth and Ed out and going back. Hell, they wouldn't even _want _come back.

That girl won't get away with this.


	4. The Waterfall Tower

**_Chapter IV: The Waterfall Tower_**

**__**Over the next week I began trying to determine what exactly was going on. It gave me some time to focus on school while relaxing a bit from this small ordeal. Even though it was only a game, something about it felt like my privacy was being invaded. That was a crime in itself, wasn't it? I dunno. That's what I did, anyway.

First off, I decided to have a friend of mine, Conner, check my computer to see if there were any bugs with it. He took his sweet old time with the thing, which I didn't really care about, but when he was done, he noticed there was nothing wrong: no bugs, no viruses, nothing.

"Are you positive? There _has_ to be something wrong, though." I tried to tell him that he must've missed something, but he just ignored me and said everything checked out fine. What a bunch of lies. I knew he must've missed something, so I decided to look up online and try to figure out how to check my computer myself. All I found was "if you're reading this, then you're computer is fine" or answers from WikiHow and stuff. I mean, the first one raised a good point - the only problems I found were in _Minecraft_. It had to be something with the game and not my computer, then, so I decided to try my hand at that world again.

I got on, prepared some decent equipment, and went straight for the lab. I wandered the tunnels and found where the ground had completely collapsed under me. The hole was still there and I could definitely see the Nether below, but something didn't feel right. I needed a Nether Portal to enter that place. I couldn't just dig down. Something else was up. Was my world corrupted? Hell, maybe the game itself was corrupted, but not my computer. I don't know how that works, but it's a possibility at this point.

Before heading down into the pit, I went out and got some wool to make a bed in case I died. I placed the bed in front of the pit, said my prayers, and dived down. I was beginning to regret ever making such a decision seeing how there was a _massive pit of lava below me_. Stupid, stupid me! I was so pressed to find that freaking girl that I didn't consider trying another way into there.

Since I was _probably_ going to die because of my sheer stupidity, I decided to try one last thing.

I began swinging my arms around like any crazy person would. Tides of lava began to flow in all directions, leaving an open space right below me. I began using my arms faster and with more strength. Slowly, the waves became bigger. I think this was when I was actually getting the hang of it all. I continued to do this before pulling a Moses and making a massive divide in the lake of lava. I walked along the bedrock below me and reached a platform of Nether rack. In fact, it was the _same_ platform that the girl was standing on.

Was she around here?

The place was creepy as hell, that much I'll tell you. I didn't have any previous experience with the Nether, so I didn't know what to expect besides lava. I remember Ed and Garth warning me that the place was basically Hell in _Minecraft_. Since they never really lied, I took their word for it. Sort of. Not really. Whatever.

I walked over to a hill of Nether rack and began to mine some soul sand for the hell of it. I wasn't sure what the stuff here could do, so I wanted to get as much of it in case it became of use to me in the future. I continued up this hill until there was just a single layer of Nether rack above me. I mined that, expecting to see more Nether rack on the other side...

Instead, I saw Bedrock.

I looked around and saw Ghasts and Zombie Pigmen surrounding me. What had I done? The hell if I knew. I began to ward them off with whatever weapons I had. When the coast was clear, I continued to mine the Nether rack around that Bedrock and found that there seemed to be an entire layer of the impenetrable block above me. I mined the Nether rack until there was a solid outline of Bedrock. It seemed to me like there was some sort of building that I didn't see.

Seeing as to how I was basically stuck in this stupid place for the time being, I continued exploring and collecting soul sand and Nether rack. Every now and then my mind would play tricks on me and make me think I saw the girl off in the distance. She would never be there and I'd go a little more insane each time. My stupid mind was beginning to hate me for going through with this.

Eventually I reached this little tunnel heading upwards. I followed the tunnel upwards, killing a bunch of freaking Zombie Pigmen, until there was just a Bedrock wall in front of me. "Was Conner _positive_ that there wasn't anything wrong with my computer?" I began to echo to myself. I mean, maybe it was just the _Minecraft_ file that was corrupted. Yeah, _that_ was probably it. Not my computer. It couldn't be a mod since I knew nothing about those. It just seemed that whatever was going on centered around the stupid Bedrock always getting in my way.

I tried digging around the Bedrock, but it seemed to spread on forever.

Finally, I had had enough.

I took out all the Nether rack that I had accumulated and began to stack it so that I could just climb over the damn wall of Bedrock. Even though I _did_ reach the top of the wall, I felt something ominous beginning to occur. This feeling was really scaring the hell outta me since this was just a stupid game! I mean, for real! I dug myself a little hole above the wall in the middle of the Nether rack and set up a little camp there. I began to prepare to go onwards and see whatever the hell I might be dealing with.

When I decided to dig the Nether rack out and possibly see what kind of building I was facing, I began to worry that something might be leading me there. Why else would the laboratory be there in the first place with that big-ass hole at the end? Was someone trying to trap me? This began to make me feel sick. Someone was invading my privacy. The problem was that I had no idea _who_, so I couldn't bring them to justice. They could continue doing this and terrorizing me. It was beginning to make me worry for my own health.

Gradually, I made my way through the Nether rack until finally seeing what that ceiling of Bedrock really was.

I was correct in guessing that there was a building.

But the kind of building it was? I would've never expected something of that beauty to appear in _Minecraft_.

The building was made completely out of Bedrock. It was completely surrounded by Nether rack with four holes at the top of each wall. Water rushed through the holes, forming a lake just above the ground. It was marvelous. There were even windows on the sides of the tower.

But again, I never built this. Hell, I didn't even _know_ how to build this. Once more, Bedrock is impenetrable. It can't be mined.

So who the hell was doing this?

Since I had dug myself too far into this, I decided to go back to my camp and rest. I'd get off _Minecraft_ and explore the tower, which I had called The Waterfall Tower, the next day. Something fishy was going on. I didn't seem to angry this time since I had come to terms with what was going on. After all, I've been stalked in the past, but let's not get into that.


	5. Mind Games

**_Chapter V: Mind Games_**

**__**The next day, I invited Garth and Ed over, but they declined after the last time they witnessed me and my "bugged" game. I didn't want to experience something like this alone, so I asked Conner if he wanted to hang out so I could "thank him" for checking my computer. After school he came over and I booted up my computer. Instead of going straight for _Minecraft_, I decided to check my e-mail which, since I don't do anything important, was probably empty.

There was one message left unopened:

_Dear __Wes_

_The lava is hot This time of Year._

_From, Anon_

__"What the hell did I just read?" I asked myself. Conner became intrigued and read the message.

"Wes? Who calls you Wes?" He asked me.

That didn't necessarily worry me. My name is Howard, though everyone just calls me Howie. When I was young, my parents would call me Wes because of my dislike for my first name. Where did Wes come from? I can't remember. Though whoever sent me this e-mail must know me personally to understand that much.

What _really_ worried me was the mysteriousness of this goddamn e-mail. I remember panicking the more I looked into this case. The e-mail only caused me more panic than usual. I closed it, contemplated opening _Minecraft_, and ultimately started the game. Conner sat in a metal chair next to me and watched intriguingly. I had forgotten he had no idea what was going on.

When I started, I was still at the camp and The Waterfall Tower was still where it was. Everything seemed normal except I couldn't dig my way back to where I had climbed up the Bedrock tower - more Bedrock had been put in its place. Could that girl be doing this? I didn't really think that far ahead at the time since I was honestly sort of excited to explore the tower. Conner seemed interested as well, so I wasted no time and began to approach the massive building of Bedrock.

The water below seemed strong. _Minecraft_ never really considered the whole "water current" science and stuff, so water usually went the same speed or used the same force, no matter the situation. The thing was that this water seemed different. There were lines in it. Lines of white that flashed as if to indicate the water was rushing downwards. This made me wonder where or not I would be sucked down to drown if I dared trying to jump to the building. I didn't risk it. I just wanted to get to the tower.

I began to use Nether rack as a resource for a bridge. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually reach the front entrance of the building. It was a typical wooden door that I took with me instead of simply opening and closing. Inside was just a single room. There were no stairs or possible entrances to the other floors of the tower. It was just this one room made of stone slabs and windows. No torches or decoration - the place felt dark and empty.

Conner told me to go outside and try building some stairs or just a pile up to the next floor. I did so with the Nether rack and found an entrance to the next floor of the tower. I went inside and it was the _same exact_ deal as the below floor. There must've been something I wasn't getting. If each floor was like this, there must be something more to the design of the tower.

I finished looking at each floor of the tower, but found nothing of importance. I stepped away from the computer for a moment to discuss things with Conner, who seemed really interested rather than scared in what I was going through. Hell, we even made a freaking _list_ of things to consider when looking at The Waterfall Tower. That list consisted of:

**1. The Bedrock**

**2. The Waterfall**

**3. The Nether below the things above**

**4. The emptiness of the rooms**

****Ultimately, we couldn't come up with anything and I even began to lose hope. Whoever was messing with me, which was probably this "Anon" person who sent me the e-mail, is very good with making me think since I can't think straight anymore. Conner so desperately wanted to help, so I made him a deal: if he could try to narrow down the possibilities of the secret to The Waterfall Tower, I'd make him my partner in this whole thing. He agreed and went home to try and figure things out. Meanwhile, I went back to the camp and got off _Minecraft_ since I couldn't do much else besides think and experiment.

The next day, I got a call from Conner before school, which was unusual. He said, "F**k school. Meet me at my house. I have something I have to show you."

That was extremely unusual. For one thing, he never cursed. I only knew him for, like, a year or two, and he had never cursed in that time. Secondly, he was known for having perfect attendance to school. If he had decided to not attend in favor of something else, it must've been _that_ important.

Since my parents were usually asleep when I left for school, getting over to Conner's house would be a cinch. He lived only a few streets over and no school buses came through here until later, so I had plenty of time and space to get going. When I made it to his two-story home, he brought me inside and to his room. It was small with a futon, desk, and large TV in the corner. He had shut the blinds like some sort of maniac and left the lights off.

"I think I may have figured out what might be going on with your game." Conner said.

Had he? I'd be surprised, honestly. Then again, he is pretty freaking smart.

Conner opened up his laptop and revealed he had downloaded his own copy of _Minecraft_. He began to show me what he had done, which wasn't anything extraordinary. After messing around for a few minutes, he began to go into this finely mined cave in the side of a mountain. There, he had built a small replica of The Waterfall Tower to try and experiment on. This guy was more into this mystery than I was!

"I went over the different components of the situation and began to see a connection between the symbolism of the waterfall and the location of the Nether," Conner began boggling my brain; I could barely understand him anymore, "if you hadn't guessed, the Nether basically represents the Underworld, or Hell. There is no water in either, so no one can really survive. However, from how the tower was built, it seems that someone might be trying to tell us something. There is more to this then I have discovered, though. If we skip school, we can probably learn the truth behind your problems by the afternoon."

Was this something I really wanted to go through? I mean, I _hate_ school, but I would rather attend it than sit on _Minecraft_ in an attempt to discover something that is probably just a stupid prank on me. Nonetheless, Conner and I continued trying to figure out whatever The Waterfall Tower might be trying to symbolize. We began even wondering if there might be a person trying to communicate with us. This added to his theory that someone is trapped in the Nether with some sort of secret and built The Waterfall Tower to try and message us. I told him that was stupid, and he shrugged it off as "something that _could_ happen."

By noon, we had nothing. I was telling him that I would have to hang around at his house until later so that my parents wouldn't find out that I had skipped school and he said he didn't care. He continued to experiment while I looked around his room and looked at all this random stuff he had. He had this decent anime collection (I was never a big fan of anime) and quite a few action figures. I'm not really sure if I wanted to call him an otaku, but it seemed that way at this point.

I was actually beginning to contemplate watching one of them when he shouted, "Success!"

On the computer screen, he showed me that there _is_ symbolism behind The Waterfall Tower. More specifically, the waterfall itself.

In simple terms, he told me we _had_ to flood the Nether.


	6. Flooding the Nether

**FlyingMidgetProductions: After uploading this story, I began to received e-mails from Howie in response to some of the reviews. Here are the things that he left to say:**

**mynamemattersnot: **Well, no I didn't. The whole conflict has since concluded (it happened around a year or so ago) and I figured out by the end that it was not my computer that was causing this. No hacking was involved, as you should see in the future. Believe me, that was my freaking guess, too.

**GoDoFbIrD: **Yeah, don't worry. The whole thing didn't blow over quickly. It'll take quite a while for FMP to properly tell my story. I've already clued him in on the whole thing. I'm glad you enjoyed the crap I had to go through, though.

**loserthatscool: **Like I pointed out to mynamemattersnot, that isn't quite the deal. Conner actually checked my computer a few more times later and then I got help from freaking Geek Squad. Sound stupid? Trust me, it was. Trust me, though, my computer was as healthy as an athlete at the Olympics.

* * *

_**Chapter VI: Flooding the**** Nether**_

It seemed insane, but worked out in my mind.

Conner was this terrifying genius, really. He seemed to know what he was doing even if he had no idea.

So when he told me about "Operation: Nether Reborn", I was feeling mixed emotions. I couldn't tell if he was being honest or not. The whole thing seemed surreal to me at this point. I was beginning to feel like I was in a dream. This was the stuff that people often made up to impress their friends. I couldn't understand what I really wanted to do. Should I go along with it? Should I stop paying so much goddamn attention to Conner and focus back on my school work?

"What do we do, then?" I asked him.

He told me to wait until Friday, which was only two days away. In those two days, he prepared a checklist of all the equipment, resources, etc. that we would need in order to ensure success. He came over to my house, gave me the checklist, and began to go over the things that would need to be done. I really wished that this was on a multiplayer server because then he could actually help me. Either way, he had my back, and I appreciated that.

Once we had all the necessary equipment (a bunch of wooden planks, some weapons and tools, stone, that sort of general stuff) he told me I would need to begin filling up the outside of that pool of water at the bottom of the tower. I approached the tower with my stone and begin to line up the outer wall so that water fell onto there. I was worrying that I would die, but as I continued to go along with the plan, things worked out much better than I had ever expected.

Eventually he told me to stop when I nearly at the tower. The entire pool of water was filled up except for that one last row in front of the tower. Conner told me that I would now need to put now enough blocks in front of the first door so that water would flow into the first room. When that was done. I closed off the first room and began to put more blocks until I reached the second floor. Basically, I did the same thing over and over again, and if _Minecraft_ is anything like real life, I probably was drenched to the point of never getting dry again.

So all six floors were filled with water, right? I had expected something to happen since Conner _told_ me something would happen.

Nothing.

"Uh, that's _strange_," Conner looked back over his notes, "something odd is really going on. You filled up _all_ rooms, right?"

I nodded. There were only six floors. Even _he_ knew that.

"Alright, let me take over for a quick second." Conner scooted in front of my computer and began to fidget around.

He built holes in the Nether rack walls as a transport to the different floors of The Waterfall Tower. He even tried finding the source of the waterfall, but couldn't get out of the freaking Nether. It began to feel like he was just pulling my leg and trying to make me feel stupid for believing in such crap.

But he was being honest. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was being 100% honest. He didn't know what was wrong.

He stepped away from the computer, looked over his notes, and looked back at the computer screen, "This isn't right."

"What isn't? I don't know what you're talking about anymore." I replied, trying to figure out the situation for myself.

"Everything! If my hypothesis proved true, then the tower would have collapsed into the Nether below. The windows would shatter and the Nether would be flooded. Something else must be done, then. I don't know what, though." Conner left my room and went to the bathroom.

What Conner had hypothesized sounded _very _convoluted and completely impossible. _Minecraft_ wasn't made for this kind of thing. Why would he think that it could handle that? Then again, he did seem pretty new to the experience.

However, we are dealing with my world, where Bedrock is being used like any other resource would be. At this point, _anything_ was possible.

With that in mind, I decided that I might _have_ to agree with him - something was missing from the whole experiment. I began checking through everything, including inventory and such. Nothing stood out to me. I began wondering if this whole thing was just a glitch now. I mean, _that_ would make sense - maybe? Hell, I don't even know anymore. Stupid things happen to stupid people, I guess.

"Okay, the model is correct," Conner went over the list one last time, "what else could possibly be missing?"

"Why are you asking me? I have no idea." I said and went back to looking around.

Since we were probably going to be there for a while, I decided that it might be interesting to return back to the whole "moving lava" ordeal that started me on this journey of discovery. Since there was no lava available, I decided to try again with the water, which, as you should remember, failed miserably. I began waving my arms around like a freaking maniac before realizing that, like all the other freaking times, nothing was gonna happen. Why bother anymore? There were more important things to look into. You know, like _why the hell was there this massive tower just sort of situated in the middle of the Nether_?

No, I didn't go back to that whole thing after giving up. Instead, I noticed something that I had apparently never noticed before.

While I was waving my arms around all crazy-like, I began to see that my view changed a bit. Not out of first person, though. As in when I turned my direction a bit, only the head turned. I guess when I moved around before I did it so fast that this never stood out to me. Maybe this was in normal _Minecraft_, but it felt really odd here because I began to notice that my arms had more reach now. As in I could literally hit my left arm with my right arm, or vice versa.

That made me morbidly curious.

I grabbed a wooden sword that I had and looked at my left arm while Conner was busy looking over his notes again. The stupid guy didn't know when to try something else. He was still a genius, though. I wouldn't have gotten this far without him, to be honest. He'll have to stick around since Garth and Ed are too chicken to.

Just as he had decided to look up at my computer screen, I had attacked my left arm with the sword in my right hand. Unlike how _Minecraft_ obviously usually is, my arm began to bleed. Like, _actually_ bleed. I was a bit petrified in front of my monitor, but thought that was just another clue as to what might be going on. Conner, who never played _Minecraft_, knew that that would never be allowed in a rated "E" game (I don't actually know the rating, though. I'm _guessing_ it's "E", but don't try to correct me on it).

By chance, the blood began to trickle down my arm and drip into the water. I hadn't even planned that, either. It was just a thing that, you know, sort of happened. The blood mixed with the water and, surprisingly, spread out through the pool. The pool was now purple and beginning to shake vigorously. Heh, that's a big word for me.

Anyway, that was our key. _That's _what we were missing.

A few moments later, the Bedrock underneath The Waterfall Tower disappeared. Maybe it was disintegrated by the purple stuff? I still don't know. It never actually made me think, though. Instead, I had to focus on the massive tower in front of me as it began to collapse into the Nether below with surprising grace. It made me feel like I was in a freaking movie. Everything was starting to slow down and I even thought my computer would crash at any minute. There was smoke and screams (from the Ghasts and Zombie Pigmen, I'm guessing) and another earthquake just a few minutes later. I didn't want to look over the edge at the disaster that I had just caused. I didn't dare.

I did anyway, though. When I looked down, I saw obsidian everywhere. There was lava and water too, but only when they weren't touching. When they did, there was obsidian. There was also glass everywhere. Glass is gone forever when it breaks, right? Nope. Here, there were actual _shards_ of glass everywhere. Some floated in the water, others melted in the lava. There were also dead bodies of Ghasts and Zombie Pigmen everywhere. They didn't disappear at all - their bodies just laid there, motionless or struggling to get up. It was only a game, but I actually regretted doing that._  
_

It only made me wonder more about what could be going on. This would never be allowed in the game. It _couldn't_ be.

"Go down there. Now." Conner advised. I decided to listen to him since he got me to this point. I feared having to face angry mobs, but I would have to put up with it if I wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery.

When I got to the remains of The Waterfall Tower, I think I remember my inventory getting to the maximum capacity in less than a minute. The damage I did to the land was _that_ incredible. Incredible, but disastrous. The amount of bodies everywhere was extravagant. I couldn't really handle it well. Conner knew I was having a hard time with it and asked me if I wanted to step away, but I decided against it. Sad, isn't it? One of the few times I've ever gotten emotional and it's in a freaking video game. This was an all time low for me.

The real reason I wanted to stay on the game was because I had found her.

The girl. She was standing up on a hill. She had this armor made of Bedrock instead of that stupid maid outfit. She even had a freaking Bedrock sword to compliment it! Could it even break? I didn't know.

"It's great to see you come to fruition as one of us," the girl spoke like she was all-knowing, "now, it is time for your final test."

What did she mean by that?

I couldn't think that through because she jumped high into the air and landed right in front of me. She began swinging her Bedrock sword towards me like she was suffering from a freaking seizure. I kept backing up before turning around and just running the hell away. I didn't trust her anymore. I didn't want to try and talk to her anymore. Obviously she seemed to just want to kill me. What the hell did I ever do to her?

I eventually came to a lake of lava. She stopped a small distance away from me.

Like she was waiting for me.

"What do you want?" I typed. I had no idea how she was talking to me with voice.

"I want you to use your power. You've gotten this far with it. Now use it!" The girl shouted and continued trying to kill me.

Conner was watching, unsure whether to laugh at the oddity of the situation or fear because of the oddity of the situation. Seriously, I couldn't blame him. This girl was whack, I tell you. She just wouldn't give up and spoke like she was right out of a fantasy book. I've read quite a few in the past. Good stuff.

She was beginning to corner me around the lake, so I grabbed a bunch of Nether rack and began to building a bridge (sort of) to the other side of the lake. As you'd expect, it would take forever, so I stood there, unsure of what to do. This psycho stood before me with her invincible weaponry and armor, expecting me to do something. What was it, though? I wasn't sure. She was so vague.

"Your power is right at your feet!" She shouted and approached me on my own bridge.

Damn it! This wasn't going well at all. Conner and I were seriously sweating ourselves trying to figure out what was going on. We had nothing to do to stay alive.

Suddenly, I was reminded of when I went into the Nether the second time.

Instead of falling straight into the lava lake like the first time, I _moved_ the lava. I had created a divide in the lake. I had pulled a Moses.

Was that what she wanted me to do?

I began doing what I did best and flailed my arms around. Small ripples were made in the lava, but nothing extraordinary.

"Goddamn it, hurry up!" I was becoming frisky. Conner was tense, as well, but I wasn't sure. I was staring at my monitor like a psycho.

Finally, there was the sound of an eruption from a volcano. Waves of lava shot out to either side like tsunamis. A path of Bedrock was now before me, leading all the way to the other side of the freaking lake. She wanted me to do that? Was that it? I decided to go along with it and ran down the path, too scared to look back at the girl, who was undoubtedly following me.

When I reached the Nether rack shore, I turned around and was right: she _was_ following me.

This was it.

I closed the freaking path.

She looked around, shaking uncontrollably.

Was this who I was?

A killer?

Damn it, but it's _Minecraft_! It's just a game!

Right?

...Right?

I looked around, still with tons of questions on what could be going on. The girl that I had been hunting was now dead and I was _still_ stuck in the Nether. Well, sort of. I could probably just mine upwards. Hell, why is the Nether accessible through just digging? When you dig all the way down, all you find is Bedrock. Was the Nether always just underneath that impenetrable layer? I dunno. I guess?

Since I still had things to investigate, I went back to the crash site of The Waterfall Tower.

There she was.

The freaking girl I had just drowned in lava was standing where I first saw her, clapping like she had won.

She didn't look hurt in the slightest.

"Congratulations," she said happily, "you win."

Then I was disconnected.

That was literally it.

I tried to get back onto my own freaking world, but it wasn't there anymore. I never deleted it! Did she?

"It's not over!" I was becoming frisky while Conner looked like he just had a revelation, "It can't be over!"

"It's not," He said and threw his notes onto the floor, "it's actually just as I expected."

"What? What the hell did you expect?" I asked while turning off my computer.

"You somehow debugged Minecraft."


	7. Invitation

**FlyingMidgetProductions: Howie has spoken to me. He said that he has wanted to sort of connect with you guys since you seem to be taking such an interest to what happened to him. He has decided to keep doing that look at your review thing.**

**Gravityfallz**: Well, sort of. It happened to _me_, Howard. Not FlyingMidgetProductions. FMP is only a friend of mine who I decided to tell. He seemed to understand the subject enough. You know, I wouldn't tell my freaking mom or anything. She wouldn't understand. Either way, I'm glad you've taken an interest to what happened. I hope it opens you eyes to what you really don't see.

_**Chapter VII: Invitation**_

Yeah, so, I though my computer was freaking doomed. All that stuff happened and I wasn't sure what to make of it. Conner was becoming a bit uneasy with the whole thing. I could've sworn he would finally crack at any moment and get the hell out while he could. But he seemed interested. He wanted to help me badly. I couldn't say no to that. It's a thing that a true friend would do.

The following week after the incident, I began to feel different. Different in a good way, though.

For one thing, I felt wide awake. In school I usually would be too tired to pay any attention to anyone. That week I felt full of energy and relaxed. I even participated in class discussions, which wasn't what I normally did. For another thing, I didn't feel like sitting inside on my computer. Instead I went outside and played soccer and stuff with Garth and Ed, who were looking a lot better as well. I was actually more productive than usual, which I began to notice as I did things. I worked up to admit that I liked a girl (didn't get to take her out though) and felt better than I usually did.

Everything seemed perfect. When I would lay in bed at night, not able to get any sleep, I would wonder to myself "Why hasn't my life been like this all along? Why have I been stuck in such a bad mood all this time?" The next day, while I attended school, I began to think about that one question. Why haven't I felt this great ever before? What changed me suddenly?

At this point _Minecraft_ was completely out of my mind. I had completely forgotten about the whole incident.

The second week passed and I was getting ready for February. It was getting pretty damn cold and I was falling in love again. When I got home one snowy afternoon, I decided I would do something spectacular. I would make a heart out of real wood and fill it with chocolate and confetti for the girl I liked. I would need my dad's assistance since I sucked at using power tools, but I had the whole thing planned out. I was usually good at math and figuring out size, shape, and other stuff like that.

As soon as I got home that afternoon, I had gone to my room to unload all my junk and prepare to begin working on the craft. Even though Valentine's Day was still quite a few weeks away, I wanted to plan ahead. I wanted to think about how the girl might react, how I might propose, how we might get married, all that stuff. We barely even _talked_ yet I felt a strong bond with her.

Once my back pack was empty, I threw it under my desk.

I looked up at the monitor of my computer.

Headaches from staring at _Minecraft_ began to come to mind. It was an infuriating pain that I actually took medication for.

"Dad's not gonna be home for a while." I said to myself and booted the computer up. As the light flashed on the screen, I solemnly remembered my last moments in _Minecraft_. The girl I had killed appeared unharmed. She was dangerous, I could tell. It wasn't worth it anymore. Whoever she was - I didn't want any involvement.

But what did she want with me? That question returned to me. It was becoming even more interesting as my world was still gone at this point. She also seemed to infiltrating my privacy. That wasn't cool. Something was up. I had decided to not worry about it, though. I went online and directly to my e-mail. I had sent in quite a few job applications to various places around town. One place was a restaurant that catered to the elderly. I often had to help my grandmother at the retirement home, so I thought I had enough experience. Another was at a bowling alley. I used to play bowling on a team when I was young. I sucked, but knew just about everything there was to know about the stupid sport.

**"1 New Email. From: Blackfield."**

Who?

This was something new. What the hell was a Blackfield? Was it a person? Place? I opened it up and read:

_To Howard,_

_Congratulations on coming this far. Not many have the same intellect as you, I, or any of us. We would be more than welcoming to offer you a chance to become a member of our team. This offer will bring into our mission to discover the secrets that hide within Minecraft. If you decide to decline, beware that the answers will still be mysteries to you. If you choose to accept, we would most like to see you at our next meeting on Wednesday._

_It's an honor,_

_Blackfield_

Damn it, just damn it! More people? I thought I had gotten done with this whole deal! Now more people are talking to me! I just don't care anymore!

Thoughts began to run through my head. This was serious now. Whoever this Blackfield was... he must've had some connection with the girl I had encountered. He might've also had some connection with the email from Anon I had received long ago. Were things coming together finally? Would I be able to make sense of the situation?

There was a link in the email. I followed it to a blank page with the words "ThePlace".

Was this a server? There was a string of numbers that went with it. As I'm writing this I can't remember it, but there were a ton of nines. That's all.

I still had two days until their meeting would take place. The thing that was bugging my was whether or not I _should_ join. This Blackfield dude told me that if I attended that I would become a part of his group. What group, though? I wasn't sure if this was up my alley. This kind of stuff was usually stupid and pointless anyway. I wrote down a reminder in case I had decided to attend the meeting on Wednesday. Over the next two days I pondered the idea more until finally deciding.

I logged onto the server simply called "The Place".

When I spawned, I remember being in a dim room. It was fantastically designed. It seemed to be inside a mountain or something. I was standing on a pedestal as well. It was an octagonal shape with a red X in the middle. Columns with torches on top of them surrounded me. In between the columns were other users, all staring at me. One of them stepped forward. His character was dressed in a trench coat with brown hair. He looked like a typical emo kid. You know, the kind that you saw in all those JRPGs? Or anime? I dunno.

"Welcome to The Place, Howard." The guy spoke. Again, how did these people speak like normal people? The girl did it back in the Nether. Now this guy was doing it. He sounded pretty decent, though. Not emo. Actually rather normal. His quality was clear too.

Since I wasn't sure what the hell I was doing, I began to wonder about quitting the server and not continuing on since, at this point, it looked like I was in the middle of some cult meeting. This wasn't the best option, I realized, and I began typing, "Who is Blackfield? I was brought here by him. Where is he?"

"It is I that messaged you," the same emo looking guy said, "it is because you are one of us now."

One of them? I looked around at the other people. There was a guy dressed in a suit with a bald head (a poor Hitman reference, I'm guessing), some guy in some explorer's get-up with goggles (Psychonauts?), a girl with a blond ponytail and pink dress, a guy dressed like a soldier straight out of the military, some guy dressed like a pirate, a ninja, and then-

"We meet again." The girl from the Nether spoke. She laughed a bit in her greeting. It was very unnerving.

"Okay, what is going on?" I typed in response to seeing the same girl who tried to kill me greet me with laughter.

Blackfield approached me on the pedestal, "Howard, we are just like you. We have gone through the same things as you. Here... In The Place, you should feel like you belong. You do, too. We all do."

"What is The Place for?" I typed. I was seriously beginning to feel like shutting off my computer and never coming back.

"It is the server where The Debuggers meet," Blackfield spoke and looked at all the users around me, "all ten of us, including you now."

"Debuggers?" I typed curiously. Conner mentioned something about me debugging _Minecraft_. Was this it?

"We are The Debuggers, a group of people who have entered into the darkest corners of the game in which we call _Minecraft_. How did we do it? By using the architecture that was originally forbidden and deleted out of the programming." Blackfield looked at me. Even though it was just an avatar, I felt afraid, "You built your little 'Pig Paladin' and set off the chain of events that have ultimately led you here. We welcome you as you are now one of the few who have debugged _Minecraft_."

What.

The freaking Pig Paladin caused all of this to happen? You have got to be freaking kidding me! That is complete stupidity at its max! The freaking design of the contraption was atrocious. How could it have originally been planned for inclusion in the full game? Honestly, I wasn't think this at the time. Instead, I was wondering to myself, "How the hell do they know my name?"

"How the hell do you know my name?" I typed.

"As Debuggers, we are also expert hackers," the girl began speaking, "most of us have become prolific in programming as a result of the adventures we've gone on to discover what Debugged _Minecraft_ holds. We simply found out your name while trying to test you. Speaking of which, I wanna say that I'm sorry that I went crazy on you. You know, trying to kill you and all."

A test? I began to put two and two together. That whole thing was a test to see if I was fit for this freaking group.

"Adventures?" I reiterated. I wanted a bit more explanation before I got involved.

"Debugged _Minecraft_ holds many secrets that we are currently uncovering. Many servers were originally put up as testing areas in development. We are trying to discover them all and use them as a gateway to understanding what really lies underneath the surface of this game," Blackfield seemed to be the leader of this whole operation, "while it _is_ only a game, it is also a tool. More so, _was_. You see, we all, collectively, hypothesize that _Minecraft_ was something completely different early on in development. We fear it might not be suitable for the public, either. That's why we're handing this ourselves."

Now that sounded freaking awesome! Honestly, Conner was right all along. I had somehow debugged the game. That machine I built apparently caused more trouble than I had expected. It still surprises me to this day, after the whole thing has come and gone, that I thought it up one day, tried to build it without thinking of it as anything special. Freaking crazy.

"Alright, I'm in." I decided to respond. I was excited now, "Where do I start?"

"First off, you'll need a microphone so we can communicate with one another easier," Blackfield explained, "other than that, you should be good. A nice place to start is introducing you to our team. I'm Blackfield, commander of The Debuggers."

The bald guy in the seat stepped toward me, "I'm Tyrus. I've been on this team the longest, along with Blackfield here."

The guy with the goggles stepped forward, "I'm Contra. I've only recently joined."

The girl in the dress with the ponytail stepped forward, "I am Ashland. Uh... I don't really know what to say."

The soldier stood in place, "Call me Gage. This thing is going to fall apart sooner or later, I tell you."

Everyone rolled their eyes. It was hilarious.

The pirate jumped forward, "I'm Lyle!"

I nodded. Nothing to be said, really. The dude was nuts.

"I'm Octane," the ninja spoke, "it's a pleasure, Howard."

Finally, the girl approached me, "I'm Solstice. Yeah, what everyone else said. Welcome to the team."

"Do I get a cool name?" I asked. Everyone's name sounded so freaking badass.

"No!" They all shouted.

I was instantly disconnected.

As I stepped away from my computer, I began to just stare at the wall, my smile turning into a frown.

What the hell had I freaking done?


	8. Powers of the Forbidden

**_Chapter VIII: Powers of the Forbidden_**

So, yeah. I'm officially a Debugger now. I'm not sure if that was the proper thing to do.

I mean, even though I did debug the freaking game, does that really qualify me for this kind of job? No, it's not a job, but you know what I mean. _Role_ might fit better, but the point remains. This might've been a huge mistake on my part. Each of those people, the other Debuggers, seem strange in their own way. Gage especially with the cryptic way he introduced himself to me. "This whole place is going to fall apart soon" I think he said. I don't really remember. I don't really _want_ to remember. But I have to now that I'm one of them.

Right. One of them.

That sounded so freaking weird. I still wasn't entirely sure what the hell kind of group this was. They said they were hackers, but they seemed like some sort of cult. Both, perhaps? Would that make sense? That sort of makes me wonder the whole "do I qualify for this?" thing. I'm no hacker. Hell, I barely take any interest in _Minecraft_. The only thing that is keeping me going is the fact that we're uncovering secrets that were left behind.

Also, Solstice. I wanna know more about her.

Anyway, my world was still gone and ThePlace was down (at least for me) so I wasn't left with much at this point. Eventually, after waiting about another week, I began predicting another email from Blackfield to arrive. He would tell me something and that would be that.

When next Tuesday rolled around, I opened up my email:

**"2 New Emails."**

Two?

**"New Email From: Blackfield."**

I opened that one first.

_Dearest Howard,_

_I would like to welcome you to The Debuggers. As I have said, you must have a proper working microphone before embarking on your first mission._

_I have sent this message to invoke you with the knowledge that will be necessary in surviving the hazards of Debugged Minecraft._

_First off, if you die once, you will be booted from the debug mode. Therefore, you won't be able to come back. It's a bit of a glitch with the coding. We learned this the hard way with one of our older partners. Another thing is that I have decided that you must be aware of the discoveries already made in regards to Ancient Minecraft, which is what we like to call its early development._

_We spoke to you about your Pig Paladin and how it brought you into the debug mode. To be more in detail, what you built is what is called a Forbidden Machine. Collectively, we call these things ForbiddenCraft. They were great projects that would be included in Minecraft, but were scrapped early on. Some of their accessibility was left behind in the end result, and we are the ones to have discovered them. In total, we believe there to be fourteen, meaning four have been left undiscovered, but we aren't completely sure._

_The last thing I must explain to you is the content of our missions. Each mission will be briefed in our meetings each Wednesday. Those who decide to not attend the weekly meeting won't be accepted into the mission the following weekend. Our missions currently take place on a server simply called "Forbidden" which is where we coined the term ForbiddenCraft. We expect there to be plenty more hidden servers to discover and explore, but this is the only one to be found so far. Perhaps with your assistance the task won't be so difficult much longer._

_We're expecting you at the meeting, Howard._

_Sincerely,_

_Blackfield_

Well, this is just great. Now I'm officially a part of this stupid group. I couldn't believe it. This couldn't be real. It _couldn't_.

Either way, I decided that it would still be best to go to that freaking meeting. I looked through my basement and found a decent microphone to hook up. When I did, I did some voice recordings quickly before deciding that would be good enough. I sat there, in front of my monitor, unsure of what I should do. There was plenty, yet I felt so bored. So empty.

Was I actually excited for this meeting?

I opened up my email to look at Blackfield's message before seeing:

**"1 New Email."**

Damn it, I forgot the other one. I opened up that one now:

_Howie,_

_Something tells Me that you have Been Naughty. Expect great THings._

_Anon._

Wait a minute.

I thought this Anon and Blackfield were the same person. Or at least connected somehow. Was I wrong? I didn't understand. This Anon was now becoming worrisome rather than freaking Solstice.

The next day, I had serious trouble paying attention in school. All I could think about was the meeting. What kind of mission would we have this upcoming weekend? Blackfield mentioned a server called "Forbidden". Should I have logged onto it yesterday to see what it was like? Maybe not, though. With a name like "Forbidden" I probably wouldn't have survived. Whatever. Fine by me. No skin off my back.

As soon as school let out, I got to my monitor and logged onto The Place. Only Solstice was there. She seemed to be mining a bunch from a hole in the wall and putting it into a chest. She was wearing her maid outfit again. What was with the maid outfit? What was the point?

She looked at me, "You're here quite early."

"I didn't know what time we would be meeting. I just came." I spoke shyly a bit. I hoped they wouldn't judge my voice.

"Don't worry. I come early _all_ the time. It gives me time to work on my little project here." She turned to the hole in the wall.

"Project? What kind of project?"

"Well, you may not have known this, but The Place is a bit of an odd server," Solstice led me into the mine where we both started digging, "when we found this place in our search for a free server to meet in, we were surprised because we were stuck in this entire place. If you look around, you'll see we're stuck in this massive mountain. We've never left it. That's what I'm working on."

We both began filling the chest with a bunch of stone, "You're trying to get out?"

"I just want to see what the outside world is like." She said.

As we continued to work on the tunnel, various other members began to sign on for the meeting. Blackfield was actually last to appear.

Once we were all present, Blackfield stood up on the pedestal and began to speak to us about our meeting that weekend.

"Welcome, Debuggers. Our next mission will still be on Forbidden, despite it being nearly 100% explored. Something in there is hiding from us and I expect to find it this weekend. This weekend will also mark our first mission with Howard, here." Blackfield acknowledged me. Everyone gave a round of applause. It felt so freaking awkward.

"I'd actually like to go by Howie, sir." I asked.

Blackfield actually laughed. It was a really freaking weird laugh, "Don't call me sir. In the Debuggers, we have no boss. We work freely. I am merely the briefer. I make sure missions get carried out. Everyone here has their own role as well as power."

"Power?" I echoed. This was the first time I heard this.

"Every person here has a power that came with them from their moment of debugging," Blackfield began, "Solstice has clued me in that your power is that you can control lava?"

So _that's_ what happened. Apparently I had a special power now that came with debugging the game. Interesting.

"I guess." I said.

"You're the only one here with that power. Everyone else either shares a power or has their own. Solstice and Gage both can control bedrock; Octane and Tyrus both can control obsidian and various other dark elements; Ashland and Contra can control the air; and Lyle and I control the water. It's rare that we find someone capable of controlling lava. Not even Hospice controlled lava." Blackfield explained everyone's power to me. It seemed very overwhelming.

Who was Hospice? "Who is Hospice?" I asked.

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

Lyle approached me, "He's the guy who disappeared from us 'cause he died. He was the strongest of us, too."

"Really? What was his power?" I asked.

"He had complete power over the Endermen," Blackfield said, "it was incredible. It was a godly power, I must say."

I nodded. It seemed the whole deal with Hospice must've been _that_ bad.

"That matters not, though!" Blackfield tried to appear more optimistic to the rest of us, "We must plan out our final operation on Forbidden!"

Solstice nodded, "Right, let's do this!"

"What hasn't been explored in Forbidden, though?" Gage asked. He seemed very brooding and rather mischievous.

"That large mountain, maybe?" Lyle spoke up, "You guys always said a mountain in _Minecraft_ could never be that big. Is that it, perhaps?"

"Lyle might have a point. I have no recollections of our adventures on that mountain." Octane entered into the discussion.

I looked over at both Tyrus and Contra, who seemed to want to remain out of the discussion. They were looking at Gage strangely, though.

"Alright, then let's try that." Blackfield concluded, "This weekend we'll roll out on Operation: God Mountain. I expect to see you all here on Friday night."

_Disconnected_.


	9. Journey to God Mountain

_****_**FlyingMidgetProductions: Here is Howard with more commentary on them reviews.**

_****_**WolfPackMC: **Ha, you made a Pig Paladin as well? That's crazy. Great minds think alike then, I guess? I dunno. Be careful, though. The debug mode can become incredibly difficult to handle sometimes. Don't get caught up in that mess.

_**Chapter IX: Journey to God Mountain**_

The two days following our meeting were agonizing. Everything was going so freaking slow for me I couldn't handle it. Everyone seemed to piss me off. I didn't want to do anything. I felt freaking awful all the time. Disappointment filled my chest. I was the complete opposite of how I was during that one week where I felt freaking happy. I couldn't handle this. It was horrible. It was miserable.

But I pressed on. When Friday arrived I had prepared for the mission. I got a ton of food and drink ready in case I got hungry or thirsty or whatever. Since I didn't really feel like doing anything else, I thought it might be nice to log onto The Place and maybe help Solstice with the tunnel. She seemed to like me, so I didn't really have anything against her anymore. She seemed nice, too. I still didn't understand the stupid maid outfit, though. What happened to the bedrock armor? That looked badass.

When I got onto The Place, Solstice was over in the corner of the mountain base with a furnace, her chest, and a crafting table. She looked busy at work, so I approached her calmly. I mean, I know she knew that I was there, but I knew not to rush into anything. That was the worst thing to do. Everyone knows that it's the worst thing to do.

"How's it going?" I asked.

"Fine." She said and turned her back to me. She went into the tunnel to work.

"Is that all?" I asked and began to help her dig.

"Listen," She turned to me. She sounded angry, "why don't you stay in here and dig while I go and craft, okay?"

She left the tunnel in a fit.

What did I do? Nothing, that's what. All I did was get on and try to be nice and this is what I get. What a bunch of nothing. I _thought_ she liked me, but I guessed not as much as I expected. My stupid mind plays tricks on me sometimes. Whatever. I just continued digging.

Blackfield signed onto the server a little later, "Solstice, can I speak with you?"

"Not now." She replied grumpily. What was her freaking problem? I swear, I could tell Blackfield was just as confused as I was.

"It's important though." Blackfield approached.

She turned to him and punched him, "I said not now. That means wait, okay?"

I just stood there in the freaking tunnel, watching as Blackfield looked around awkwardly. He didn't even see me until a little later on when he had enough of waiting for Solstice to stop acting like a brat, "Howard-"

"Please, _please_ call me Howie. I'd appreciate it." I repeated what I told him at the last meeting. He seemed like the kind of guy to not listen often.

"Alright, _Howie_," Blackfield corrected himself, "it seems that Gage won't be joining us for this mission tonight for whatever reason. That leaves only nine of us in attendance at this point."

"Gage didn't tell you why?"

"I asked him, but he said for personal reasons. With that said, we will begin in half an hour. Once we start, I expect your full attention to the exploration of the mountain." Blackfield left to another part of The Place. There was one other hall, but I never went down it. It must've been for keeping stuff or an office for Blackfield or something. I dunno, it must've been important, though.

Since I had nothing better to do, I just kept digging. Every now and then I would turn to Solstice to see if she had calmed down, but she seemed angrier every minute. Eventually I gave up on hoping to see her happier.

Within that half an hour Lyle, Octane, Contra, Tyrus, and Ashland all signed on to partake in the mission. They all seemed cheery and delighted to see each other while Solstice just groaned every damn minute. She was really starting to get on my nerves now.

Blackfield left out of that hallway and stepped onto the pedestal, "Greeting, fellow Debuggers. It is now time to explain the game plan for Operation: God Mountain."

I continued to dig while listening. I don't Solstice was paying any freaking attention though. She just kept crafting.

"As you know, that mountain in Forbidden has possibly been left undiscovered so far. We now expect that to be the hiding place of what this server's secret is. We have called this place God Mountain for the time being as to avoid confusion. Is everyone with me so far?" Blackfield asked.

Everyone seemed to be listening properly except for Solstice. Big surprise.

"Tonight we are without Gage, but that won't hold us back. Solstice here will be more than capable of handling our bedrock needs, am I right?" Blackfield asked Solstice.

She turned to him, "Yeah, whatever."

"That's the spirit. Now, when we log onto the server, we'll want to wait until everyone is in one place. Once that is accomplished we can begin trekking to God Mountain to learn what is on the inside. Do I make myself clear?" Blackfield finished the briefing.

Everyone nodded and logged off.

"Howie, I'm going to email you the coordinates for Forbidden. I expect to see you there soon." Blackfield logged off as well.

Before I logged off, I walked over to Solstice, "Are you gonna be alright?" I asked her politely.

"Just go. I'll catch up in a minute." She told me.

I logged off.

I opened up my email.

**"2 New Emails."**

It better not be that freaking Anon again.

I opened up the first one.

It was from Blackfield with the name of the server and a string of numbers.

Then there was the second one.

_Howard,_

_Do you feel alright with doing this? You seem a bit scared._

_- Solstice._

Wait, what? Solstice wanted to make sure I was okay? That didn't sound like her. She sent me this earlier today, so it must've been when she was in a better mood. Interesting to see she isn't such a mean person all the time even though she acts like it.

I pushed that thought aside and logged onto Forbidden.

When I spawned, I found myself underground with the rest of the Debuggers, including Solstice. It looked like the place used to be a dungeon before it was turned into this meeting place by the others. Blackfield stood at the bottom of the steps leading up and out of the place. I looked over at Solstice, who was looking a bit down. She just kept out of everyone's way here.

"Is everyone here now?" Blackfield asked.

"Yeah, let's get going." Lyle responded.

One by one we exited the underground. When we were all outside, I looked out around this server. It was definitely unusual. It was magnificent, nonetheless. We were on a sandy peninsula with the sea stretching out for miles. The water here looked hyper realistic, though. It reminded me of the rushing water from around The Waterfall Tower.

Towards inner land it got a lot grassier. The hills were large with trees all along them. Over the hills I saw our destination.

God Mountain.

It's sheer size was overwhelming. It was the largest mountain I had ever seen in _Minecraft_. It went high into the sky, even blocking out the freaking sun. It was pretty freaking big in width as well. I could barely comprehend how something that big could be spawned in this server. It didn't seem probable. It was absolutely magnificent, though. I couldn't believe that we would be scaling that thing. Honestly, it made me wonder how they skipped right over it. Something of that magnificence couldn't simply be ignored like that.

"Why haven't you guys gone to this place yet?" I asked as we began to cross over the hills.

"Other things have taken up our priorities, honestly. We've been led all over this place. It sort of makes us think that there is definitely something in the mountain that someone doesn't want us to see. It'll probably lead us to our next mission." Blackfield said as he took the lead.

On the other side of the hills was a massive field of grass. Like the water, it looked hyper realistic. This must've been what _Minecraft _was originally going to look like. The grass was blowing in the wind, too. Wind wasn't usually in _Minecraft_. This was really interesting. I was playing what _Minecraft_ originally was.

There were various bumps in the field, but for the most part it was clear. There were cows everywhere, too. A _lot_ of cows.

We began crossing the field before Octane stopped, "Wait, Howard. You don't have any tools or anything, do you?"

I shook my head. I had completely forgotten about that.

"Here, you can have my stone sword," he handed me a sword, "be careful not to hurt anyone with it. We don't want to lose anyone else."

We continued to walk through the field, killing the cows for their leather, until a thought creeped into my mind.

"I didn't see you guys craft anything. How did you get all these weapons?" I asked.

They were all equipped with swords of diamond and gold as well as some interesting armor that I had never seen before. Some of them were wearing these striped leather vests and crown helmets.

Blackfield turned to me, "Ancient Minecraft was originally going to include the option of carrying equipment from one server to the next. Since we debugged the game, we now have this power. It gives us a bit more opportunity to handle these kinds of situations. That's sort of why we had to delete your world, too. We wanted you to start over from scratch as a part of The Debuggers."

"So _you_ deleted my world?" I actually sort of expected it.

Everyone turned and continued through the field.

If I remember correctly, we reached the other side of the field where there were more hills. God Mountain was still a bit of a distance away, but we were prepared for the trek. We sat down on those hills to go through our inventory and make a game plan on how we would explore the monstrosity of a mountain. The place was huge. We would need to think this through if we wanted to discover its secrets the first time around. It was obvious that they had been stuck with this server for quite some time. They just wanted to be done with it. Made me wonder what other things they discovered, though.

As we relaxed and talked, I noticed Solstice was still in a bit of a funk. She sat off to the side, sort of looking out over the field. She looked more lonely than angry now. Should I have talked to her? I felt it would only bring back out the anger inside. It would be best to let her be. Whatever she was dealing with was her problem, not mine.

"Alright, I'm going to send Octane and Contra to look around the base of the mountain for any notable entrances. It would only cause difficulties if we had to dig our way in." Blackfield ordered. Both Octane and Contra ran off to explore the outside of the mountain.

Ten minutes later, they came back with two entrances. Apparently there was a railroad track high up on the side of the mountain that went into some sort of mine. There were also stairs that went down under the mountain. It was now evident that there would be two groups of four. I wondered if I would be stuck with Solstice.

"Alright, here's how we'll work. We need two groups of four. One will take the railroad while the others will go under the mountain. Hopefully we'll meet up somewhere in the mountain. Does everyone understand?" Blackfield began, "I'll lead one group. Howie, let's make you a group leader. Everyone else has been one before and I'd like you to have experience."

I felt honored but nervous, "This seems like such an important mission, though. Is that really the best idea?"

"Octane, I want you with me." Blackfield ignored my worries.

I sighed and looked at everyone else. I wanted to pick Solstice, but I worried that she would only be more annoyed if she got stuck with me. She stood up and stared up at the mountain, "Uh, Lyle. You're with me."

"Contra, you're mine." Blackfield said.

"Ashland." I said.

"Tyrus." Blackfield said.

Now that Solstice was forced with my group, I felt a bit more relieved. I didn't force her into anything by choosing her. It felt nice, actually. I guess Blackfield must've noticed her negative attitude when he first signed onto The Place. Oh well, that didn't matter. It was now time to explore the mountain.

"Howie, you take the railroad. We'll go explore the underground. That's going to be all the more dangerous because of the chance of anything collapsing. Be careful, though. If there's any structures, that means someone else might be here." Blackfield advised me and left with Tyrus, Octane, and Contra.

I turned to Solstice, Lyle, and Ashland, "We should get going."

"Don't worry, I'll clue you in as we go." Lyle said. It was really hard to take him seriously when he was dressed as a freaking pirate.

Thank god for that, though. Even though he seemed to be foolish, he was such a swell guy.

As we began to figure out a way up the mountain and to the railroad, I kept my eye on Solstice. I was beginning to care for her more and more. I didn't want to see her hurt. After all, if she were to die, I would lose all connections with her. I didn't want that.

When we looked up at the railroad, we noticed that it was in the shape of a U. One of the open shafts was blocked off by bedrock and the other was open for us to enter. If bedrock was there, that must've meant exactly what Blackfield had theorized.

We weren't alone.


	10. The Army of a Thousand

_**Chapter X: The Army of a Thousand**_

_****_I swear, climbing that mountain felt surreal. The more time I spent with The Debuggers, the more I felt like I was actually _in _Minecraft. The thing was complex, definitely. It was a strange twist on reality. I felt a strong bond with both Lyle and Solstice; not so much with Ashland. She didn't seem to speak too much. Maybe she had a lot on her mind. I didn't bug her about it. We had to deal with this freaking mountain. This God Mountain. That sounded so epic. It was incredible.

Lyle took the lead at this point and decided that it would be a smart idea to craft a bunch of ladders. He handed me one of his spare axes and all four of us began to mine the trees that were abundant around that area. Once we had well over 200, we turned it all into wooden planks and began to craft a good supply of ladders. Once we had crafted all that we could, Lyle took them and began to place them on the side of the mountain. We would then climb, bringing our crafting table with us, and arrive at a platform, or ledge, or whatever you wanna call them, on the side of the mountain. We would then place more ladders or craft more or stuff. We made it up to the railroad in no time, though I felt like we were wasting time. Blackfield and the others were probably already well into the underneath of the mountain.

When we finally got to the railroad with plenty of ladders to spare, we looked out over the world. It was freaking beautiful. It was surreal. I already mentioned how the grass and water and wind looked hyper realistic. It added greatly to the beauty. I asked Lyle if it was a mod, but he said it was naturally like this. Why hadn't they made the final product like this? Probably wouldn't have run as smoothly, I'm guessing. Then again, I _am_playing it now. That didn't matter. It was time to enter God Mountain.

We went into the tunnel and found it was really just a hill heading down for quite a while. The railroad followed the hill down all the way into the bowels of the mountain. Since we all seemed prepared, we began descending down the hill and into total darkness. Along the way we found a bunch of coal and used that to make torches. They were all handed to me, so I just placed them down every ten blocks along the hill. Everything was going as I had hoped.

When we reached the bottom, everything looked so natural. It was dark with stone blocks placed everywhere randomly. Some tunnels stemmed from this cave into other parts of the mine. I placed torches everywhere, cleared out any nearby monsters, and decided that this would be the ideal place for a camp. We set up our chests, crafting tables, furnaces, and such before sitting down to discuss what was next.

"Well, they already have the down part of the mountain," Ashland pointed out, "we want to explore up here, right?"

"She raises a point. We should take the tunnel that either stays at this level or goes up. We don't wanna go down." Lyle agreed.

It felt great being the figure of authority to these people. They raised quite valid points, too. We should stay up in the higher reaches of the mountain rather than go downwards where Blackfield is. I looked over at Solstice, who was mining a bunch of the stone, "Solstice, what do you think?" I asked. I wanted her to be involved. Whatever she was going through... she didn't have to go through it alone.

"What they said." She said without looking at me.

I shrugged. That seemed reasonable enough.

There were three total tunnels branching off of the camp. We decided to take the one that stayed even with our camp. We followed it down, placing torches all along the way and killing zombies and creepers that approached us. Not a single person was ever hurt. It was glorious. I felt so powerful while doing this. It was a stupid game, but still! It felt amazing!

When we reached the end of the tunnel, we found some iron and decided to mine that for better tools. While we did that, though, Ashland seemed to have picked up a sound or something. She kept telling us, "Guys, I hear something." I looked around the tunnel while they mined, but couldn't find anything. We were alone except for the various monsters that were still lurking around. I felt sympathetic for her, though. She was experiencing something no one else was. That's exactly how I was when I first debugged Minecraft.

We took the mined iron back to our camp and began to store it in the furnace. Lyle offered to wait behind and watch it while the rest of us explored the next tunnel leading up. When we started down the tunnel, almost _immediately_, Ashland became very afraid.

"It's getting louder!" She exclaimed shockingly. Her reaction was absolutely frightening, yet Solstice seemed completely static.

Ashland ended up waiting with Lyle while Solstice and I continued down this tunnel. There was some coal along the walls, but nothing important. We eventually reached a wall of sand at the end. That didn't seem right since we _were_ in a mountain after all. We still hacked away at it with our tools and suddenly found ourselves outside.

When we exited, we found that it was the peak of God Mountain. Everything was completely sandy up here. I didn't think we were _that_ high up. It seemed surreal, really. Everything looked incredible from such great heights. We walked higher up on the peak before stopping at the center. Literally everything up here was sand. It was strange.

"Howard, did you see my email?" Solstice asked suddenly.

I looked at her, "Yeah."

"Are you alright with this?" She asked me with concern.

"Absolutely. If I wasn't I wouldn't have joined you guys." I replied honestly.

We continued to look out over the world while the sun began to set. It seemed there was more daytime than usual in Minecraft.

"Hey, Howard," Solstice began again, "what do you think of Gage?"

"What? Gage? What about him?"

"What do you think of him? Do you like him?"

I thought about that one for a bit. I didn't want to hurt her feelings if she had any for Gage, "I dunno, really. I barely know the guy."

"Right. That makes sense." She said.

"Why? What do _you_ think of him?"

Solstice sat down. Again, you can't do _that_ in Minecraft, "I don't know either, really. He was always there for me, but not the others."

I... was at an absolute loss for words. Everything about this conversation was odd. It was actually uncomfortable, really. I wasn't sure if I was ready to speak to her on this personal of a level. Every friendship I've had always started with us cracking jokes left and right. Maybe a month later we would start talking like this. But on the first or second day? No way. That's not how I function.

Instead of thinking of how to reply to her, I began to notice that Ashland really was hearing something. She must've had better hearing or her speakers turned up all the way. It was the sound of mobs. They were growling, laughing, and shouting. It was in English, too. Solstice and I had no idea where the hell it was coming from, though. We sat there, dumbfounded, looking around until finally we took a peek over the edge of the mountain peak.

Down below, at the foot of the mountain, was a massive army of zombies, spiders, skeletons, and creepers all crowding around God Mountain. It looked like there were thousands of them. They were extended on for miles. I could barely even see the goddamn _ground_ because there were so many of those stupid freaks. Solstice remained calm, though. She began walking back to the mine entrance we had made, "Stay here. I'll go inform Lyle and Ashland of this."

I obliged and kept my eye on them. This was definitely not in Minecraft. This would never be possible. The game couldn't possibly handle that many mobs. Where the hell had they come from, though? There were even color swaps for some them. There were black, blue, white, and red spiders; there were white, black, green, and yellow skeletons; there were green, blue, red, and gray creepers; and there were zombies with normal eyes and shiny eyes. They definitely reminded me of Herobrine.

Minutes later Solstice came back to the peak with both Lyle and Ashland. They looked at the army below and freaked out a lot. I felt calm, though. I guess I wasn't as attached to this whole thing as they were. However, I became a bit anxious as I was the leader. I would have to decide how to get out of this. The only possible thing to do was travel down that last tunnel and find Blackfield and his group. Then an absolute nightmare unfolded in my mind.

"The mobs are going to be able to follow Blackfield into the underground. I don't think any of them would be able to handle all those mobs. We need to find them and get them to higher ground before they are killed." I ordered. Everyone seemed alright with the plan. We entered back into the mines and quickly crafted our iron tools (everyone got one of each major tool, including a sword) before heading down that last tunnel. We found that there were more railroad tracks on this one.

At the bottom of this tunnel we found torches already placed everywhere. Was Blackfield already that close? We looked around a bit before finding another tunnel leading down. We followed this one, which seemed to go on forever, before finding one last tunnel. This had a railroad, but with four mine carts as well. This upset us because someone had to have placed it here with knowing that there would be four of us. Again, Blackfield must've been right. We couldn't be alone.

We got in the mine carts and began to roll down the long hill. As we neared the bottom, we realized we had made a vital mistake. There was simple drop off at the bottom. When we reached it, we began falling into a black pit. Everyone looked at each other with the fear that this would be the end. It wouldn't be probable that we could survive that fall.

Somehow, though, we did. The mine carts were destroyed and there was light from torches all around us. We found ourselves in a camp.

Blackfield's camp, to be exact.

All four of them were sitting on a bench made of wooden planks in front of a fire. They looked at us, shaking with the thought that we had died. Luckily, none of us did and we were alright. We approached the group and sat down around the fire to rest.

"Are you guys alright?" Blackfield asked.

I shook my head, "We have to get to higher ground. There is an army of thousands of monsters outside this mountain."

"Wait, did you guys already reach the peak?" Octane butted in.

I nodded.

"And you found nothing?" He asked.

"Nothing but sand."

Blackfield and Octane looked at each. They were thinking the same thing.

"If you found nothing, we want to go deeper, not higher. What we're searching for must be deeper underground." Blackfield said.

"Are you sure? That's incredibly risky with the swarm of mobs." I warned.

Solstice stopped me from speaking anymore, "Blackfield has handled these situations before. If he says we'll be alright, then we'll be alright."

This worried me greatly. I didn't want this whole operation to fall apart already. She had a point, though. Blackfield was more experienced with the debug mode. This is why everyone saw him as a leader. He had the most experience and knew what he was doing. Everyone felt safe when he was in charge. He didn't think of himself as a leader, but it was obvious that he was. It made perfect sense, really.

"Alright, we still want to be careful," Blackfield spoke up, "we will begin digging downwards. I want two people up here watching for any mobs that might try to intervene. The rest of you will come with me as we begin mining this place out. Sooner or later we'll find that secret."

"But what if there is no secret?" I asked.

Blackfield looked at me angrily, "Don't say that. Everything has a secret. You have a secret that we haven't learned about yet."

"What?" I was shocked. He seemed legitimately pissed by my comment.

"It's probably a secret you don't even know about yourself yet." Blackfield said before turning to go mining.


	11. Fighting the Infinite

**Howard Answers:**

**Addicted2snickers: **Like I've said with other people, this did happen to me, Howard. FlyingMidgetProductions wasn't involved with The Debuggers at all. I've known him for a while and decided to give him a bit of detail on what happened. I appreciate that you think of my involvement with this whole thing as a work of art, but I dunno if I would go that far. Tragedy and such isn't really considered art. Then again, _Titanic_ is one of the most popular movies of all time. I dunno, thanks though.

_**Chapter XI: Fighting the Infinite**_

So, yeah.

Solstice and Contra remained behind to watch our backs while we began the mining operation. Even though I wouldn't get to work with her for a while, I felt I bonded a bit more with Solstice. It felt great being there for her. Maybe I _am_ ready for this type of friendship after all. I may not know her in real life, but at this point that doesn't matter. I just wanted to be there for her.

Blackfield looked around for a good place to start digging. Eventually Lyle pointed out the wall where we fell off the tracks seemed like the spot with the most potential, so we started there. It got really cramped really fast with six of us piled into one corner, so Blackfield ordered Tyrus and Lyle to go watch with Contra and Solstice. That left only me, Blackfield, Ashland, and Octane. We were pretty damn productive, though. We worked that wall hard. We were digging away at layers so fast that we could have put up all the blocks and mined it again with plenty of time to spare.

Every five layers or so Blackfield would leave us to go and check on the four Debuggers keeping watch. He would come back, looking a bit more anxious each time. This made me freaking scared, though. If Blackfield, who was the most confident in The Debuggers, was becoming fearful, then we were in trouble. That's the way I saw it, at least. Things weren't looking too good.

I just kept my mind focused on getting through all this freaking stone. It was a boring and monotonous task, but it had to be done. Every few minutes I would think about Solstice suddenly and feel the urge to try harder. That would push me far enough to try and get this done. I dunno about Ashland or Octane, but Blackfield and I had plenty enough motivation. I wanted to make sure Solstice was safe, and Blackfield wanted to ensure the safety of his team. That _might've_ been it. I wasn't too sure. That's what I thought.

Eventually we finally reached some sort of checkpoint. We mined at least thirty layers before coming to another cave. It wasn't really a cave, though. It was two finely formed hallways going in either direction. After we reached this point we returned to the camp to see how the four watchers were doing.

"We saw a few creepers, but they went away almost immediately." Lyle explained.

"Very well then. Let's get a move on. We have found something of significance." Blackfield ordered.

Everyone grouped together and walked to the intersecting hallways. We split up into our little groups from before and went down the different hallways: my group took left while Blackfield's took right. I dunno what Blackfield saw since he never actually reported anything odd. As for my group, we continued down until we found another four-way intersection. We took each hallway from there. Strange thing was that each one was identical.

Each of them had the same length, same rock, same everything. Oddly enough, each of them had some sort of key hole at the end of them. Again, key holes weren't in Minecraft. Just another reminder of the fact that I'm actually going through this. It terrified me in many ways. I couldn't believe it at all. It was honestly difficult to keep my composure. You may think I was overreacting because it was just a stupid computer game, but it felt so... real. It felt like I was facing these people in real life. I had strong bonds with all of them despite only knowing them for a week or two. Especially with Solstice, but enough of that.

Blackfield left his group in the right hallway and came looking for me, "It isn't safe to be in this compact of an area. We have to get out."

"Where to? There's no where else. This area has to be hiding something," I told him and showed him the key holes we had found, "some sort of keys go in here. We should be looking for those, I guess. Where could they be?"

That one question stumped every single one of us. We would dig, we would search, then we would fear for our lives as the army of mobs came closer. We were completely lost. Those key holes were hiding something. We tried mining them, but nothing happened. Our health was still diminished greatly, so that was another worry. There were so many things to look into, but not enough time.

I leaned back in my chair and took my eyes off my monitor. My room was dark. I usually turned off the lights to gain focus. That makes me a loser, doesn't it? Like I care.

As Minecraft continued to run, I heard a blip in the background of my computer. I minimized Minecraft and noticed something on the screen.

**"1 New Email."**

This couldn't be good. I opened it up.

_Howard,_

_Think for those You are Protecting and JouRney into The belly Of the Beast._

_Anon._

Goddamn it, this Anon dude was getting on my nerves. Then again...

Was he trying to help me?

I opened up Minecraft again and looked at everyone, who were wandering around aimlessly.

"What now?" Ashland asked half heartedly, "The mobs are going to be upon us any minute now."

I looked out at the mobs, "I have an idea."

Everyone looked up at me. I decided that it would be a bit effective to go ahead with my plan. Without looking back, I approached the opening of the cave where the mobs were attempting to approach and removed my iron sword. I began shouting stuff like, "Hey, I'm over here!" and "Come and get me, you bunch of jokers!" to get their attention. It worked on some, but not all of them.

"Howard, what are you doing?" Blackfield shouted angrily. Not so much because I was putting myself in danger. More so because I had assumed control.

"This!" I began attacking the mobs that had approached me. There were a few zombies and creepers and maybe one or two spiders, but the rest were all ignoring me. Where they were going I had no idea.

Blackfield ran to me and hit me, "Stop it! You're putting everyone at stake!"

"How so?" I asked. I remained calm. This could prove a useful in winning this argument.

"Provoking them when we're cornered is the worst possible plan at this point! We need to be smart!" Blackfield argued.

More mobs were now approaching me.

"Something about these monsters," I said, looking out over them, "something about these _beasts_..."

Suddenly, I saw it. It was marvelous.

The golden creeper.

"That there!" I shouted and pointed out to the significant monster, "We want that one there!"

Blackfield looked over at it in surprise, "Why is it golden?"

"Because it has the key!" I shouted.

Blackfield turned back to everyone else, "Guys, hurry up and help us! We want the golden creepers dead now!"

Everyone piled up in the opening of the cave with their weapons. I turned to find Solstice standing next to me, donned in her bedrock armor. She looked incredibly freaking strong, too. We began wailing on the mobs in front of us. The golden creeper was deeper in the army, so we had to deplete some of the army to get to it. While I felt scared that someone might lose their life through this, I felt a bit more confident since we all knew what we were doing again. In the end, that was what I was most afraid of.

A sense of being lost.

Blackfield feared it as well.

"Keep it going, guys!" Blackfield shouted encouragingly. We were almost there. I could hear the golden creeper from where I stood.

It was whimpering. It was terrified because it knew what we had to do.

That didn't change my mind. We needed that key. If what Anon meant the same thing I thought it meant, then we would be doing the right thing.

Finally it approached us.

We all froze as the mob stared at us in fright. I felt my heart crumble just staring into its eyes. It knew all along what it was meant for. The poor guy.

"I'm sorry." Octane said and took the job of killing it.

The creeper exploded into a cloud of golden dust. Out of that dust fell a golden key; _the _golden key that we would need. I picked it up and told everyone to find the other two golden creepers while I went to go put the key in the hole. When I returned I saw that the army was only getting bigger. I would look out over the horizon and see as more and more mobs joined the fray. My hope for finding the secret of this damned server was beginning to fade. The golden creepers could be _anywhere_ in that army. It would take us ages to find it.

"Howard!" Blackfield shouted to me. It was becoming annoying how he suddenly stopped calling me Howie. He was just stressed, though. I couldn't blame him or anyone else. It was an incredibly stressful mission at this point.

"What?"

"Take this," Blackfield gave me a dozen TNT blocks, "and get it somewhere effective."

"Somewhere effective?" I repeated to myself before understanding what he meant. I felt like a complete badass running into that army. I also felt like a complete weakling since I was afraid some creeper would freaking end me at any moment. I found a clearing nearby and began to dig my way under, making sure no mobs followed me. I placed all the TNT I had and prepared to set it off. I looked up at the waves of monsters running above ground. They had no idea what was about to happen.

Then again, I had no idea what was about to happen. This _was_ debugged, after all. The TNT could act as an atomic bomb. I didn't know. I was too scared now. It made me worry that Blackfield might've hated me all along and sent me in on a suicide mission. My mind quickly changed to thinking this whole thing was pointless and stupid. I even said to myself "I'm gonna blow this up and go do something else besides Minecraft!"

I lit the TNT and ran the hell out. I didn't want to die anymore. I wanted to see Solstice get out of this mess.

To my surprise, the TNT took much longer to go off. Maybe ten seconds now? It gave me time to get back to the cave which they had boarded up mostly with stone. I hopped through the small hole they had left for me and closed it up myself with what stone I had left. We all backed up and prepared for the worst - or best. I honestly wasn't too sure.

Ultimately, trying to describe to you the sound I heard would be too difficult. It wasn't the kind of sound you would hear from regular TNT. It sounded like a real life bomb detonating and engulfing the world in pain, or something like that. It was agonizing. The sound of the bomb wasn't the worst part of it all, though.

The worst part were the screams coming from the mobs.

We took down our stone wall and looked out at the mess I had just left. There was fire covering the grass. Trees had actually fallen over. Every single mob had fallen over in pain, moaning and crying at what we had caused. At what _I_ had caused. I had planted the TNT. I brought their miserable little lives to an end. I was a freaking monster.

I looked over at Blackfield as he walked out onto the battlefield. He seemed to have found the two golden creepers within minutes. He returned to us and handed them to me. Everyone seemed completely calm and fine with what just happened. I could barely keep my sorrow within myself. It was horrible. Those monsters... They were only coding and yet I felt like I had brought an actual person's life to an end. What was going on? I never felt this emotional before. It was awful.

"Howard!" Blackfield turned to me.

I looked over him slowly. Even though he couldn't see my real face, he knew I was experiencing the pains of battle.

He turned away, "I'm sorry. You were right in confronting those beasts. Let's see where these walls lead us now."

I followed the group at a distance. I noticed Solstice would look back at me every now and then. Was she worried for me? I goddamn hoped so. I needed someone to worry for me. I was sick of worrying for everyone else.

When I put the keys in their holes, nothing really happened. We stood around silently. I expected something happen like with The Waterfall Tower. I thought we would get some spectacle of visuals or something. Nothing.

"We had to have missed something." Lyle said.

"Yeah, thanks captain obvious." Octane replied.

"Shut it, guys. Just think of what else we might've had to do." I said.

Everyone looked around and explored around to see if we missed something.

I heard the blip of my email again.

**"1 New Email."**

Goddamn it, Anon. This better be good.

_Howard,_

_Blood is red, just Like Your lust._

_Anon._

Of course. We would need to connect each key somehow.

"Everyone, start digging now! We need all the redstone we can find!" I shouted to everyone.

Blackfield was about to prevent anyone from going to work, but he saw what I was getting at. We all began digging deeper into the mountain to find whatever redstone we could. Contra actually ended up finding the mother load of it all. We actually had _too_ _much_ of the resource. It was glorious. We were completely set at this point.

Everyone stood back as Lyle offered to place the redstone down.

When he did, he came back to us as the three hallways completely shifted.

Each hall combined into one. Their movement sounded like rusty gears operating a machine. When they finished combining, they suddenly shifted downwards into darkness. It went really far down. In fact, I actually though we would be going into the Nether at this point. Everyone was fearful once again. They must've had some bad experience with the Nether before. One by one we began to descend with me going last to back everyone up.

Before Solstice went down, she looked to me, "Are you going to be alright?"

Damn. She _did_ care about me. I didn't know if she loved me or anything, but she definitely had a heart.

"I'll be fine," I said, "worry about yourself."

Blackfield was second to last to go down. Before he began descending, he turned to me and gave me a golden sword.

"All monsters die some day," he said, "that's why there's Heaven for us."


	12. Xanadu

_**Chapter XII: Xanadu**_

The fear that ran through everyone as we descended into oblivion was absolutely, 100% real. We were scared out of our minds. Blackfield told us to stay in a single file line the entire way down, but I didn't want to. Every time I looked at Solstice, I could see how freaking scared she was. She was _terrified_. I thought she was the one who was scared the most by this. Everyone was in shock, though. The sense of someone being there, though. It was stronger than ever. This was abnormal. This was hell.

We reached the bottom of the hill in a few minutes. I swear, though, those minutes were the longest in my entire goddamn life. I could barely keep my composure while facing my computer monitor. Minecraft never had this strong of an effect on me before. What the hell suddenly happened? Was it the hyper realistic world I was dropped into with The Debuggers? Was that making me feel strong emotion for everything suddenly?

Anyway, that was that. We were at the bottom of the hill. We were, in a sense, still in danger. Even though we had done massive damage to the army of mobs, there was still the task of figuring out what the hell this server was hiding. We traveled down the hall that we found at the bottom of the stairs. I got closer to Solstice while we walked even though I don't think she noticed. Whatever. I'm patient. I could wait.

"Blackfield." Tyrus said.

"What?" Blackfield was still in the back.

"What's with the sound that this ground makes?" Tyrus asked and began jumping up and down. It didn't sound like normal Minecraft. It sounded like a machine. It sounded like a hammer hitting metal. It wasn't stone or anything.

We were standing on metal.

Contra put up torches he had left over on the walls. With the cave illuminated, we could clearly see that we were in the middle of a metal tunnel. Like I said before, this wasn't normal in Minecraft. Everyone was surprised by the design of the cave, though. The metal was clean and rather shiny despite being in the dark. Ashland even tried mining it but broke her pickax within seconds of starting. We had nowhere else to go but onwards.

"Howie, what do you think is down there?" Solstice asked me in regards to the end of the tunnel.

"Maybe light?" I pondered, "None of us know. All we can do is discover now."

She nodded and we kept walking. She seemed to consider my input more important. I dunno when this started, but it was nice.

When we finally reached the end of the tunnel, we looked out into what looked like a massive cylinder heading down. It was _massive_. I mean, I dunno how to really describe it. It was perfectly round, which wasn't normal in Minecraft, and there were blue lights all along it. It was like redstone, except it was blue. It was mesmerizing, that's for sure. We all just stood around staring at the goddamn walls of the place. It was that magnificent.

Me being in the front of the group at this point, with Solstice, I went forward a bit. There was a white bridge leading over to the middle of the room where some tower was placed. The tower was shaped like a cross. From what I could tell, it was made of obsidian. I think. After all, obsidian couldn't be white, right? Yeah, this obsidian was white. Totally freaky.

I began crossing over to the cross while everyone else either stayed back and watched in fear that something would happen, or followed me slowly across the bridge. I know Blackfield and Solstice followed me. I wasn't too sure about the others. They were all wimps, though, so it didn't matter. What mattered was learning what the point of the cross was. This must've been the secret of Forbidden even though we had no idea what it was suppose to be. I mean, I _know_ it was a cross, but that was it.

When we reached the perfectly round platform in the middle, the three of us stood around the cross, inspecting its design. We all raised theories on what the hell it could be, but none of them made sense. I looked over the edge of the platform and saw that below us was just an endless pit of darkness. Perhaps the Nether was down there? I didn't wanna go back there. The place was just hideous, that's all. I wasn't scared. It was just freaking ugly.

"Howie, come look at this!" Solstice told me. I walked over to where she was standing and noticed a hole in the cross where both directions intersected. It was small and barely noticeable, but still there.

"What's it for?" I asked.

"If we knew that we wouldn't be standing around here like idiots." Blackfield responded and looked around more.

Solstice and I just stared at the hole with wonder. "Anything could go in there, really."

Now, keep in mind that reaction commands were _never_ a part of Minecraft.

I stepped a bit closer to the cross to get a good look at the hole when I noticed something appear on my screen. In the bottom right corner of the screen was an "X" with the word "Activate" underneath it. I had played a few other games with stuff like this before. Some games would have you press a button that would cause something to happen. Minecraft never had these. _Never__. _I knew this to be fact.

I pressed X. At this point, I was prepared for anything.

Without even touching my mouse or keyboard, my character's hand raised up and was inserted into the hole in the cross. I could see Blackfield gasp as he looked over the edge of the platform curiously. He turned around to us and saw my hand in the cross.

"Is that all we had to do?" He asked.

I turned my head slightly to look out into the abyss beneath us. The darkness had turned to white light that seemed to be glowing. The cross was now obviously made of white obsidian. The cross looked cool, though. Like, _really_ cool. I tried moving, but I was frozen in place while my hand remained in the cross. Solstice approached Blackfield and began asking him what had just happened. Even he didn't know what I had done. All we could do was wait for the rest to unfold.

I looked up and saw that there was darkness above us that seemed to go on forever. There was no trace of stone anywhere, just metal, white light, and darkness. The place was odd as hell.

After waiting a little longer, my hand finally slid out of the hole. Once I backed up, the entire cross just crumbled right there. Pieces fell off and into the white abyss beneath us. We were definitely getting somewhere, we knew that much.

Then the bridge behind us collapsed.

The entire bridge just fell into the white abyss smoothly and without breaking. Blackfield, Solstice, and I looked to the others who were still standing by the exit to this place. They were freaking out that the monsters might find them and kill them. We had more things to worry about, though. Like if we would even get out of this place alive. This could very well be the end of us.

"Alright, let's just remain calm," Blackfield said and looked around.

Almost immediately after he said, metal stairs began to rise up out of the white abyss. They came together to form a spiral staircase heading downwards around the platform we were standing on. It went right into the white abyss that we were beginning to fear. Just what was down there? I didn't really wanna know. If there was anything down there, it would be down there for a reason.

Despite my growing fear, I began down these stairs. Solstice and Blackfield began to follow me while the rest of our team watched in fear that something bad was about to happen. They even began to go back into the metal tunnel because they were afraid for us. Or themselves. I wasn't too sure anymore. They were a bit selfish, after all.

Once we entered into the white abyss, everything became incredibly surreal. Everything was just a cloud of white. The gray metal stairs that we were walking on were still there, but we were too distracted by everything around us. It was just odd is all. I couldn't believe all of this was real. How strange.

We continued down the stairs until we reached a platform on the wall. We stepped onto the platform and looked at the wall, which was identical to the one we saw when we first entered into that freaking cylinder room. You know, metal with the blue lights. _That_ wall. We stood on the platform and looked at a door that was placed in front of us. We approached it and it slid to the left and right. On the other side was just another metal hallway that went different directions. We walked down, went right, left, right, straight, sorta like that, I guess.

We eventually reached another door similar to the one we just walked through. It opened up and on the other side...

On the other side we saw Gage.

"Go back now!" He shouted at us angrily.

Blackfield took the lead at this point. The room was square with white walls and a blue tiled floor. There was still just darkness above us.

"Gage, how did you get here so fast?" Blackfield demanded to know.

"Hurry up and get outta here!" Gage was sounding paranoid, "There are things that were hidden down here for a reason! I don't want you to get hurt!"

Blackfield stopped and looked at the soldier.

Gage was standing on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Actually, he was crouching, sort of. Maybe bowing? Something like that.

"What is going on, Gage?" Solstice asked, "You said you wouldn't be here. Did you get here before us?"

Gage nodded.

"How? Why?" I asked now.

"Because if I wasn't here right now to prevent you from going on," Gage said, sounding very sick, "then you all would only suffer."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked and began to approach the pedestal.

Blackfield grabbed me and held me back. He wanted to give Gage some space.

Gage slowly stood up all the way, "It means that you've been watched this entire time for a reason."

"What?" All three of us shouted in response. Actually, I sorta expected it, but whatever.

The door behind us shut abruptly. Before I could turn around, the screen began flashing red before returning back to the game. We were all on the floor with the sounds of screams and cries in the background. I looked around and saw Gage attempting to fight something - some_one_ - on the pedestal. This person was dressed in a unique golden armor set with various spikes and designs. This person wore sharp, golden claws over his hands and golden boots. His face was blocked by a golden mask designed like the face of a phoenix. In his hand was a very long rapier with a golden hilt and a purple blade.

I tried to stand up, but couldn't. I began just mashing random buttons on my keyboard, but nothing worked. "Gage!" I shouted.

The mysterious person turned to me, "Quiet, boy. You're next."

"Next?" I repeated.

Next, I saw Gage fall over after being slashed by the person's rapier.

"Gage!" I shouted. I looked over and saw Solstice down beside Blackfield, who looked unconscious. Was he still experiencing the red flashes? I thought that because his eyes were flashing blood red.

The person turned back to me and stepped off the pedestal, "There's a reason the debug mode was hidden. It was a good reason, too."

The person turned away from me and faced Solstice.

"It was to keep people like you from interfering with a past best forgotten." The man in the golden armor began approaching Solstice, who was crying and begging for her life now.

"Solstice!" I shouted. I couldn't let this happen. I wouldn't.

I tried again to get up, but couldn't.

It was all over. There was nothing left to do. We were freaking screwed now. The Debuggers was finished.

I looked down in the corner of my screen and saw it again.

"Press X to Activate."

Activate? Activate what?

I pressed X and noticed my character moved up a bit.

...

I began pressing X rapidly. My character was slowly getting off the ground and regaining his health as well. I swear, I thought my freaking keyboard would break, but it didn't. I just kept pressing X until I was back on my feet. Once I was, it was on.

I broke out my golden sword and began pushing the mysterious person away.

We were both wailing on each with our swords, but I seemed to be doing just enough to put him down. He started to just back away from me. Was he scared? He seemed like it. I was happy with that, too. I ran at him and noticed yet another "Press X to Activate" had appeared on screen. I pressed X once and watched as my character dashed forward, kicked the person over, and impaled him in the chest with my golden sword. It was absolutely glorious.

"Alright, you won't hurt anyone now." I said.

The man laughed a bit, "You're only putting yourself in a world of pain."

"We'll do what we want. You can't stop us." I said.

"Then let me tell you what you wanna know," the person was beginning to lose his voice, "you want to go for XANADU. That is where you'll find the answers you seek. Be careful, though. Many things will destroy you. This is where things will become too big a burden to handle. If you choose to stop now, no one would hate you. But if you continue on, only you will hate yourself."

I stood up and removed my sword from the person's chest, "Who are you?"

"Just... just an NPC..." He said and tried to sit up. Actual blood was coming out of his chest. This wasn't in normal Minecraft.

"NPC?" I was now astonished. Again, this wasn't freaking normal. This couldn't be possible. This couldn't be happening.

The person rolled onto his side, "You have secrets, do you not?"

"I guess I do." I said. That was strikingly similar to what Blackfield went on about.

"Well, don't tell anybody any of that," he said, starting to fade away, "otherwise, you'll start to miss everybody."

I stood up and looked over to Gage, who was on the floor, fading as well, "Gage!" I shouted. I tried to get his attention, but nothing worked. I ran to his side and held him as he began to go. He looked completely dead on the inside.

"Howie," he said, almost completely gone, "take care of Solstice. She was never meant for this."

"Gage..." I said as he finally disappeared. It was horrible. This wasn't meant to happen.

I looked over at Blackfield and Solstice. They both were standing up, still unsure of what the hell just freaking happened. I walked over to them and just looked at them. They both stared back at me, obviously low on health. The room was still bright. It felt empty, but it was bright. They both sat down. I kept standing up. What both Blackfield and that person said was probably true - I had secrets. _Everyone_ had secrets. We didn't know them all, though. That's why they were secrets. I wanted them to remain that way, though. I wanted to keep them as secrets.

I didn't wanna start missing anybody, though.

_-Disconnected-_


	13. Sadness

_**Chapter XIII: Sadness**_

Let's just say that after the events of God Mountain, I didn't want to go back to Minecraft ever again.

When I was finally disconnected after the horrific end of that mission, it was one in the morning. I had been at it with The Debuggers all night that I had forgotten I was actually just sitting in front of a stupid computer screen. I leaned back in my chair, trembling, and crying on the inside. I had no idea whether Blackfield, Solstice, or all the others got out. Then there was Gage. I had no idea what happened to him. My guess was that he... well, he died. If that was true then I would never see him again.

The ultimate question was who that person that caused all that suffering was. He looked like bird, sort of, and looked immensely powerful. He didn't even look like a usual avatar in Minecraft would. It was a miracle that I was able to overcome him in the end, but that didn't answer any questions. All I could do was wait and hope for the best out of these horrific turn of events.

Since my fear of Minecraft had suddenly returned, I turned off my computer and went to bed. When I woke up, it was eleven in the morning. I usually woke up earlier, but because of what happened, I wanted to sleep and forget it even happened. I had pleasant dreams, too. It was Garth, Ed, and I all just playing sports together happily. Nothing bad at all. Everything seemed to be going like it should have been all along. No goddamn Minecraft to spoil the freaking fun.

I went downstairs and saw my mother sitting at the kitchen table. She told me that her and my father heard me panting and panicking in my room and wanted to know if I was alright. I said yes and went about my morning routine before heading outside to go see...

Hell, who should I have gone to see? With all that happened, I wanted to just get away from it all. I ruled out Conner since he was involved the most, so I decided to get together with Garth and Ed and see what there was for us to do that Saturday.

When we were all together, we went to the mall and just hung out. We played games and ate and stuff. My mind was completely off Minecraft, and it felt freaking fantastic. As Minecraft _did_ begin to slip back into my mind later on, I became a bit scared. Scared of what, exactly? Scared of the fact that I'm the only one in the group of friends that I have that has endured something of this measure. It was just like when I first encountered Solstice in my own world. They didn't believe me.

"So, Howie," Garth asked me on our way home that evening, "did you ever get your Minecraft fixed?"

I didn't want to answer. I didn't want to show them the pain I endured. It was completely pathetic.

"I thought you, Ed, and I could play on a server sometime. You know, together. We haven't done that before."

Ed looked at me, awaiting an answer, "Howie?"

"I'm just gonna pass on that, alright?" I said and went on ahead home.

When I went to my room, I felt like a complete prick. I had just ditched my friends and an invitation to hang out with them because of something that happened in a goddamn video game. Had I sunken to a new low? This was just pathetic. I had planned to ask a girl out before Valentine's Day or something, but I didn't care anymore now. It was the start of February. Nothing mattered to me. I wanted everyone to be alright. I felt I caused a lot that happened.

I just wanted to see Solstice again.

I sat down at my computer, unsure of what I wanted to do. Since I joined The Debuggers, all that was on my mind was going through Ancient Minecraft. I didn't really know if I could do anything else, at least for a while. I felt emotionally deprived. Is that the right word? Something about the way I felt... felt hollow. It felt empty. I remember this feeling these days, but it was sickening. I didn't know who I was anymore.

I turned on my computer and opened my email.

**"1 New Email."**

"Goddamn it, Anon!" I was becoming pissed. Thoughts ran through my head. I began to wonder if the man who killed Gage was Anon, but I wasn't too sure. Nothing really was going according to plan. Not anymore, at least. Either way, Anon _did_ seem to be helpful during the excavation of God Mountain, so I thought it would be important to see what he had to say.

**"New Email From: Solstice."**

Solstice?

I opened it up.

_Howard,_

_Are you okay? I've spoken to Blackfield and the others and they're fine. We all know about Gage and are going to hold a ceremony for him on our next meeting. I wanted to see how you were doing after all that happened. Maybe we could meet up on another server? _

_Solstice._

Well damn, at least everyone's alright. I felt relieved. It felt right to hold a ceremony for Gage. I wonder if they did the same thing for Hospice. Was that his name? The one that was killed before I joined? By the sounds of it, only two Debuggers have been killed before. That's _something_, that's for sure. I opened up another email to reply.

_Solstice,_

_I'm doing fine, thanks for asking. I'd love to meet up with you on another server. Just send me some coordinates and I'll be there._

_Howard._

As soon as I sent it, I began to regret it. As I reminded myself of what I had just written, I hated myself. It sounded like I had just asked her out.

Minutes later, she replied.

_Howard,_

_That sounds great. I'll meet up with you tonight._

_Solstice._

She added the string of numbers and a name called "Horoscope". I guess that was the server. I waited a little bit longer and logged onto the server to see if she was there yet. When I got on, I spawned on top of a mountain. Well, not exactly on top, but sort of in a valley. There were four mountains that sloped down towards the middle. I was in the middle.

I looked around at the place. there were trees and animals and farms and everything a player could ask for. It was paradise.

Was this the work of Solstice?

"You actually came?" She approached me from behind, "I thought you'd not show up."

"I don't lie like that," I said, continuing to stare in awe at this world she called Horoscope, "did you do all of this?"

"Most of it," she said, leading me through the woods that were surrounding us, "some of my friends have also helped out, but they've gone. It's left me to try and finish it."

"What is there to finish?" It seemed more like a continuous project that couldn't be finished.

She stopped and looked around, "Everything."

We continued walking and began going up one side of the ridge between mountains.

"What I mean is that all of this is pointless," she said as we reached the top, "giving it meaning would be finishing it."

This was a side to her I didn't know or expected. She was deep, knowledgeable, and really nice. The way she treated me at first was still a mystery to me, "If you are this kind, why did you act so mean when I first joined? Before our first mission you seemed so rude."

"Oh, that," she trailed off, "it's nothing. It was a more personal thing, really. Nothing for you to be concerned about."

I wanted to keep asking questions, but that would be the wrong thing to do. We both sat down on the edge of the ridge and looked out at the ocean that surrounded this little island paradise she had created.

As day turned to night in-game, she stood up and turned to me, "Thanks for meeting me. I feel better about what happened now."

"My pleasure. Any time." I said.

We walked back down the ridge.

This was the start of something. I felt compassionate towards her. I felt like I actually-

_Disconnected._


	14. The Place Where We Surrender

**Howard Answers:**

**Guest: **Well, thanks, I guess? It's interesting how people can think of something that I find horrible as incredible. I'm glad you're enjoying it, though.

**AntoinetteEva: **To be honest, I thought this crap was a stupid mod at first. That would make sense, right? I actually asked Garth and Ed about mods a little bit to see if I had done something wrong. I guess not, though. Thanks for your response, though. No mod could be _that_ horrible, I think.

**AngelW01F1: **I understood that reference.

_**Chapter XIV: The Place Where We Surrender**_

_****_Since I was still pretty new to The Debuggers, I thought it would be the nice thing to drop by The Place in respect for Gage. It's not like he died in real life, though. Everyone acted like it. Everyone seemed to think he was _actually_ dead. How absurd. Either way, it was the right thing to do. Plus, I wanted to make sure Solstice was alright. She seemed a bit broken about what happened. The question still remained, though. How had Gage gotten ahead of us so quickly? What was he planning to do?

When Wednesday rolled around, I did all my homework and hopped right onto Minecraft. I went to The Place and saw that only Blackfield and Solstice were there. They were mining that hole in the wall and talking about something. I approached them slowly and began to help them without any consent.

"Oh, Howie," Blackfield looked over to me and stopped mining, "I wanted to apologize again for my bad behavior in Forbidden. You knew what you were doing and I didn't want to think that. You'll make a great addition to the team when the time comes around."

Well, _that_ felt great. Getting praise from the leader of our own group? Astounding. Getting praise from your higher ups was always a pleasure. It was even more so here because he seemed to dislike me early on. To get his respect was something else. It was wild.

"Thank you, but I was only part of the solution." I said. I didn't want to be stingy.

"You saved the rest of us from that vile creature." Blackfield continued to praise me.

Now it was becoming unsettling. I felt like he was setting me up just to tear me down, or something like that. I wanted to change the conversation to a different subject, "Who _was_ that creature, though?"

Blackfield began mining again, "No one knows. We saw him only for a few minutes before you killed him."

_Now_ I felt bad. I could've at least asked him some questions first. Did I? I dunno. I didn't remember.

"My bad. There are still things to work out, though. We don't wanna waste too much time." I said. I sounded like a leader to myself.

"Pace yourself. Don't push yourself too hard. Mourn when the time comes, Howie." Blackfield advised me. Sure, he _said_ he wasn't a leader, but he definitely sounded like it. He raised a good point, though. It was a time to mourn over one of our losses, not a time to work our asses off. I continued digging.

As we continued waiting for the others to show, I expected Solstice to begin talking at any minute. I would look over and just see her mindlessly whacking at the stone in front of us. She seemed out of it completely. She seemed totally lifeless.

_Lyle has signed on._

_Octane has signed on._

__Blackfield and I turned to greet the two others who showed up. We began chatting a bit on what happened at Forbidden. Every now and then I would turn to see Solstice just still mining into the wall. Was she back in some sort of funk again? I hoped she wasn't. She wasn't very nice in those. She wasn't herself in those little phases of hers.

"So how did Gage get killed?" Lyle asked bluntly.

Blackfield looked over to me. I guess he wanted me to explain. Made sense since I watched it all unfold.

"A man appeared and killed him," I began, creating suspense, "a _CPU_ came in and killed him. He called himself an NPC, but they're basically the same."

"An NPC? Those things are harmless, though." Octane was puzzled.

"This wasn't an ordinary NPC, though. This guy looked different. He looked like a monster. He seemed like just another goddamn user." I spoke. Lyle looked terrified by what I was saying.

The conversation stopped there. We all just looked at each other and then to Solstice, who just kept digging.

"So," Lyle began thinking, "what now?"

That was exactly what I had been wondering ever since we finished Forbidden. We didn't have anywhere else to go yet except... except the place that NPC spoke of. A server called "Xanadu". We had no information on it, though. All we had to work off of was our horrible memories left over from that fight. Really, it was only Blackfield, Solstice, and I who witnessed it all happen. And Gage, I guess, but he doesn't really matter anymore. Does he? Even in death, does a person matter? I mean, when Abraham Lincoln died, he wasn't forgotten. He didn't fade away with time. He is still as important as ever. I guess it really is just about how important somebody ends up being in everyone's lives.

"I received an email," Blackfield began speaking again, "an email from an anonymous source."

"Anonymous?" I echoed, "As in Anon?"

Blackfield looked at me, "You know Anon?"

"I've been in contact with him for some time now. He helped me out in Forbidden. _He_ told me about the golden keys in the creepers." I explained.

"Fascinating. We'll have to look more into that, but at another time," Blackfield turned to Solstice, who was just standing there now, "Anon emailed me with the coordinates to our next destination called Xanadu. We'll speak more about this next meeting. We all deserve this coming weekend off."

Everyone looked at Solstice as she just stood there. I could've sworn I heard her cry a bit.

Just a bit.

The ceremony to honor Gage began once the rest of the team showed up. We all gathered around the pedestal where a sign marked with his name was placed. We were humming and chanting, feeling more like a cult again. Blackfield would even stand up by the sign and recite some poetry. It was some incredibly powerful poetry, too. He would speak that even though he was no longer present with us in The Place, he was still with us wherever we went.

He was still alive, though! That's the freaking thing. These guys sounded like they thought Gage had _actually_ died. This whole thing felt like it was blown out of proportion. Was this really necessary? Sure, he would no longer be with us in Ancient Minecraft, but at least he was being kept out of the rest of the whole thing. Honestly, though, I never got to know him too well. He seemed arrogant, ignorant, and completely mindless. After he was finally gone, though, I _wanted_ to know him. I wanted to see what went on in his mind. What he actually thought. _Why_ he thought that The Debuggers would fall apart soon.

Ultimately, it boiled down to what he was trying to do. I asked this once before and I'll ask it again, what the hell was he doing so far ahead of us? He said that he wouldn't be joining us, but then we find him as he was about to get killed. It was confusing. He made no sense. I was worried there was a side to him we didn't know. A side to him we didn't _want_ to know. A side to him we would _never_ know now because he was gone.

Slowly, though, did another thought come to mind. What if Gage didn't mean The Debuggers would fall apart literally?

What if he meant emotionally? Or mentally?

That's sort of what happened to me. I was breaking down because of all of this. Did he get ahead because he wanted to get away from it all while showing us something? I would never know. Instead, I was stuck in this mountain with people I barely knew. I was beginning to slip away from the reality around me. This whole thing was emotionally and mentally degrading. I didn't feel safe knowing that if I ever died her then I would still live on in life - I began to forget life was even there. I was now in fear of dying altogether. I was stuck in this place where we would probably end up surrendering to what Minecraft holds in the end.

I wasn't ready for anything.


	15. Lost Souls

_**Chapter XV: Lost Souls**_

_****_Since Blackfield said that we would start planning our next mission the following meeting, I realized I had a lot more time to myself. I had a single week to get some things straight before I went back into the fray. Until we were to explore Xanadu, I had to find something else to do. That was the problem, though. I had devoted so much time to The Debuggers that I hadn't really thought too much about my own life. I had no idea what Garth and Ed were up to and my grades were slipping. These were difficult things to fix.

To start off, I planned to get together with Garth and Ed that weekend. I had texted them, asking about where we should meet up. Ed was busy, so I ended up going to the mall, as usual, with only Garth. We hung around and did the same old things we usually did there. It felt soulless, though. Something didn't feel right. It felt... lonely.

We were sitting in the food court when he looked at me. He looked like he was concerned. I didn't know if that was it since he never seemed concerned with anything. "Are you feeling alright?" He asked me.

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason," he was looking worried, "it's just that you've seemed out of it recently. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to, you know, help out."

Well, I didn't expect _that_. He was always a good friend, but he was never that involved. Hearing him offer to help with something was different. I felt awful about it, though. If he had decided to actually help, then I must've been _really_ out of it. I dunno how, but it must've been bad. How was I supposed to reply to this, though? I couldn't turn him down. It would hurt him, I could tell. He liked me as a friend. He didn't want to see me crumble as a person.

"I think I'm feeling better, but thanks." I said. It felt horrible to say that. Absolutely horrible.

After we finished up at the mall, I went home and looked in my email to find that Solstice had contacted me. She asked me to go back to Horoscope and talk to her. What she could want was beyond me. We had discussed all there was to discuss. Anything she could want would have to be completely pointless or stupid. I didn't think that too much, though, since she was smart. She wouldn't bring me online for no reason. She would have to have a good reason.

I waited an hour to log on. She was there, constructing some sort of small wooden cabin. It wasn't wooden planks either; just straight up wood. She turned around to me and I could hear her chuckle, "I keep thinking you won't come, but you always do. I appreciate it."

"What is it now?" I asked. I felt that I sounded more concerned than I should've been. Some of Garth's emotion must've rubbed off on me.

She walked with me back to our spot on the ridge, "It's sort of personal, but I wanted to talk to you about it..."

Wait, what was this? _Personal_? She trusted me with something personal of hers? How about that. I began thinking she would say something romantic or whatever. Was she trying to send me signals? After all that happened, I thought that actually might've been it. Seeing her so broken after all this time, I thought it would finally be time to become something more. It seemed right, after all. We'd become close rather quickly. There couldn't possibly be another Debugger who she would like more than me. Maybe Blackfield, but he seems too mature for her. I feel like she could very well just be a childhood friend. That's how our relationship had grown at this point. I felt like she was some friend I had known for years that I would finally get a chance with. That day might've been just the greatest-

"My parents are getting divorced." She said.

My whole world fell apart. There was no possible way a strong relationship could grow when she was going through something like that.

"I'm sorry to hear that." I replied. How else was I to reply? Stupid, stupid me.

"That's sort of why I've been a prick to everyone. They've been fighting and I've been caught in the middle. I'm an only child, so there's no one else to go to." She sounded depressed. Like, _really_ depressed. But that was something we had in common. Not the depression, but being an only child. I was an only child as well.

We were sitting on the ridge, looking out at the sun as it set behind the ocean, "I know how you feel. I have no brothers or sisters either."

"Is that so?" She asked.

"Yeah. I've always wanted a brother or sister, but none. My parents always seemed to care too much for me to think about having another child."

That was the worst possible thing to say at that time. Solstice was freaking falling apart because her family was being torn at the seams and I decided to actually mention how my family loved me. It was horrible. Absolutely unacceptable.

"I'm sorry." I said again.

"Don't worry about it. You're lucky. Not every kid gets a perfect life. In fact, most youth are devastated early on. I was when my uncle died. He loved me and cared for me more than my parents did." She sounded so honest. It was unsettling. She was pouring her emotion out to me. She wasn't crying or anything. She was considerably strong. She was incredible at handling such a tragic thing.

She raised a good point, though. Not every kid got a perfect life. Many suffered through death or divorce early on. It made thinking hard for me. My mind would always flutter back to such a depressing topic. What was my suffering? How did I lose my innocence? I thought hard about it. I wanted to find some way to connect with Solstice. There was something that was there yet missing.

Then I found it. "I remember hearing about my friend Conner for the first time. He wasn't my friend then."

"How'd you heard about him?" She seemed interested enough for me to go on.

"His mother passed away years ago," I said through a damp feeling in my head. It wasn't a topic I felt comfortable dealing with, "she was killed by severe cancer. It was horrible for him. We went to the same middle school, so that's how I met him. Whenever something bad were to happen, everyone would hear about it. You wouldn't want them to hear about it, but it would get out somehow. She passed away and I decided to try and console him because he was devastated."

Solstice was really taking this in. I had found it. I found the connection.

"Every two weeks we would ride our bikes out to the graveyard to see her and leave flowers. The people who worked there thought of us as the kindest people around. I didn't think so. We were just doing the sensible thing."

"That's terrible," she was depressed even more now, "I feel sorry for him. His name was Conner, you said?"

I nodded. Well, sort of. I tried to nod with my avatar.

"It's horrible, really. No one should have to go through that."

We stayed silent for a little bit. What had I done? I connected with her, but now we _both_ felt awful. Was that what it was all about? Feeling the same? I never thought about it at the time, but I miss that moment. We both felt the same way. It was scary.

"I always thought about ghosts and if they existed or not," she began again as night spread over us, "I was always wondering if ghosts were there, watching me. I always wondered if every scary occurrence was just a signal from my uncle telling me that he was there. I don't even remember what his last words were. I only remember my dad coming into my room to tell me about what happened. About how a car had come out of nowhere. It was supposedly a drunk driver. They said he passed away too."

"That scumbag." I remarked. Stupid, stupid me.

"But no, he wasn't. They're somewhere else now. They're wandering. Whether or not they're in Heaven, or Hell, or still walking through the streets where no one can see them, they're still there. They're not gone," she stood up, "they're just lost."

_Disconnected._


	16. The Hole in Me

**Howard Answers:**

**Anon: **Yeah, I think a lot people thought the same thing you did. Couldn't blame you, though. I thought it was a hacker. I was too interested in what was going on to try and stop anything from happening. It just sort of occurred as it did, I guess.

**CABRALFAN27: **Don't be. It's a wonderful experience. Well, _Minecraft_ is. Not Ancient Minecraft. Don't go near there. It's something you shouldn't mess with.

_**Chapter XVI: The Hole in Me**_

After being disconnected from Horoscope, I didn't get to see Solstice until the next meeting. I worried for her now that I knew what was really going on with her. She had a perfectly good reason for being a prick. Well, not a prick, but just mean. Everyone has a reason, I suppose. Others just don't understand those reasons. Anyway, like I said, I didn't see her until the next meeting. I attended that upcoming Wednesday with nervousness. I wasn't ready for what was to come out of exploring whatever Xanadu held.

When I signed onto The Place, everyone was already socializing and talking about their plans. I felt incredibly guilty and sick upon realizing I was just freaking late. My fear was really starting to get the better of me. I was clueless on what was about to happen. I looked around quickly for Solstice as everyone else seemed to completely ignore me. She wasn't anywhere there, though. I felt completely alone.

"Howie, it's about time you arrived." Blackfield approached me.

I turned to him slowly, "Where is Solstice? What did I miss? What're we doing about Xanadu? Where is Solstice?" My train of thought was going everywhere. I couldn't keep myself straight. I was losing composure.

"Solstice said that she wanted to stay out of this upcoming mission," Blackfield led me over to the hole in the wall which had been dug deeper, "I know you must be feeling disappointed, but don't be. We will do just fine. Let me brief you on how it's gonna go down, now."

While he spoke, I just continued to mine the tunnel deeper.

"I've done some researching into the files hidden within Xanadu and found some interesting details. Such details includes a small program allowing for duplication of some sort. What this could mean for us is unclear, but we must keep our eyes peeled. Other findings in the files include a locked folder that I suspect holds the next server. Whatever we find in Xanadu must relate to that folder. That folder was the only locked thing in the entire server. I am very curious as to what it holds. Does that sound fair?" The way he was briefing me really overwhelmed me.

I didn't think too much, but nodded anyway, "Are we meeting up at the same time as last?"

"Yes. I expect to see you on time." He said and walked away.

This was all going downhill for me. This goddamn cult was becoming more and more preoccupied with what this stupid game was hiding. That didn't matter anymore! It felt to me like everyone was becoming mentally sick from everything. Everyone should've just called it all off and take a chill pill or something. The sense of existence was becoming numb to me. All I could do was stare at my bright monitor in anticipation of what was to come.

As the evening progressed, I just continued digging away at the wall. You know that feeling of rejection? I was being devoured on the inside by that one feeling. It's the same feeling when you realize the girl you liked didn't like you back. Or the girl you thought liked you didn't even know you existed. It's the feeling of lost potential. It was the feeling of being lonely when I felt I didn't deserve it. I guess Solstice deserved a break after all she was going through. While I never experienced divorce, I could see why she would need a break from everything and all. Maybe once she becomes herself again we can quit this whole nonsense and-

_Solstice signed onto ThePlace._

I turned around and saw Solstice standing on the pedestal. Everyone had left by this time, leaving us to be the only two in the room. She walked into the tunnel and, without saying anything, began helping me dig the tunnel. We were digging away several layers each minute, making insane amounts of progress. We stopped when we began to run low on tools. When that time came around, we just stood there, looking around. We never made eye contact. I couldn't tell if she was alright anymore.

"Thanks for that talk a few days ago." She said as we walked back to the pedestal.

"No problem. Anytime. Everyone should have someone to go to." I said.

She nodded, "I'm guessing you already know why I decided not to go to Xanadu."

"Yeah, I can't blame you."

"It's not only that, though," Solstice stood up in the middle of the pedestal, "I fear something bad might happen. We might run into that man again."

"Man?"

"The NPC."

I had almost completely forgotten about that guy. He showed up out of nowhere and killed Gage on the spot. I was beginning to wonder if Gage knew this guy was coming. It all seemed so convoluted now. What Gage had to do with everything was still an incredible mystery that I was too freaking scared to wrap my head around. I was still pretty new to this thing.

"You're scared of him?" I asked her. I didn't want to write her down as a coward, but I just wanted to make sure.

"No, not really. I saw you take him down." She said.

"If I killed him then how could he come back?" I asked her. She was beginning to make no sense.

She looked up at the ceiling of The Place, "Blackfield briefed me on the mission first. You know, before anyone else. I already know about the cloning program hidden in Xanadu. I've become paranoid that that one program keeps that NPC coming back for more. It sounds reasonable right? I just don't want to be there when anything bad happens."

"What're you saying, then? That you'll just say goodbye to everyone here? Or at least to me?" I was becoming annoyed by her logic now. She made sense with the cloning program, but that was about it.

"No, that's not it! I just don't want to watch-"

I'd had enough, "Solstice, what if I died? What if I died while in Xanadu? We would never see each other again."

She looked down at me slowly, "I... I don't know."

"Would this be goodbye then? If I were to possibly die, would this be where it ends?"

_Disconnected_.

Damn it! Damn it all! Just... Goddamn it!

I'm... I'm sorry, but that was the worst possible thing to happen. Solstice was the only person in The Debuggers that I cared about. To think that that would be the last time I ever saw her would be horrible. I didn't want to say goodbye yet. I wasn't ready to miss her.

I wasn't ready for anything yet.

And yet I somehow controlled my anger and sadness. I hid under my blankets, feeling like a freaking kid again. Well, I _tried_ to control my anger and sadness. They were building up inside of me. My chance to be happy was gone. To wander Xanadu with death around every corner _without_ Solstice seemed like a complete nightmare. A nightmare I couldn't handle even _thinking_ about. Quickly was I to fall asleep, though. My parents were surprised the next morning that I hadn't stayed up all night again. Whatever.

So, once again, I had time to waste until I could go to Xanadu with The Debuggers. This wait was the worst by far because of that pit in my stomach that kept growing. It was this hole that was just horrible. Sitting in school, sitting at home, it made no difference. Garth and Ed had left me because they thought I was actually going insane and I wasn't sure what the hell Conner was up to anymore. Really, I honestly wondered about the kid sometimes. He was strange, to be honest. Brilliant, but strange. On Thursday I decided to ring him up and see what was up with him.

"Hey, Conner. It's me, Howie. What'cha been up to lately?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Oh, uh, nothing. Well, something, actually. Can you come over?" He asked impatiently.

It was night. There was no way I would get out of the house without making a scene.

"Not tonight." I said. The weekend was going to be messy so I couldn't really go over anytime then either.

"How about tomorrow? Like, before school? You know what? Forget about school. I really wanna show you something." He said.

Damn, that's _not_ what I needed at a time like this. I was beginning to suffer from various problems and now he wanted me to just up and forget about school and getting good grades. Actually, I never had good grades, to be honest. If I did decide to skip, I didn't think it would be too big a deal. My parents didn't find out about the first time, so the chances of them catching on this time seemed about the same. They were always relatively busy, so it seemed alright.

"Fine. I'll be there tomorrow morning. It'd better be good." I replied.

When I woke up, I was confused. The next morning, I just kinda stumbled around everywhere. Things seemed like a blur. I began to think straight as I thought more about the mission to Xanadu that night. Then I remember Conner wanted me to go over to his house. I contemplated going to school again before settling on forgetting about going that day. I got my stuff and walked on over to Conner's house. Inside, his blinds were closed like the previous time and he was sitting in front of his computer screen.

"Alright, what is it?" I asked angrily.

He stepped away from his computer and let me sit down. I looked at his screen and froze in astonishment. He was playing Minecraft now. He was on survival, but had too many items at his disposal. I say too many because he seemed to have done nothing. I moved around as his character while he just stood over my shoulder, watching in excitement. I was particularly astonished because I thought he did something else. I nearly began crying of anger because I was actually right.

Conner had now debugged Minecraft as well.


	17. Welcome to the Aquatic Oblivion

**FlyingMidgetProductions: Just a quick note, I've moved the "Howard Answers" to the bottom of the page. That way you guys wouldn't have to scroll down past answers to may or may not find pointless to get to the actual story.**

_**Chapter XVII: Welcome to the Aquatic Oblivion**_

Just my freaking goddamn luck.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Conner said proudly. He expected me to praise him on his good work when he really only screwed his freaking sanity over.

I turned to him with shock, "What is this? Why? How?"

"The same way you did. I thought it might be fun to see what you were doing. Maybe we can play together on servers now?"

I couldn't freaking take him seriously anymore. He was driving me up the wall at this point. In his mind, this was only a game that I had discovered within another game... I guess? He didn't know what I had gone through up to that point. He was as freaking oblivious as any teenager's parents. Well, actually, I take that back. Even teenagers parents aren't that oblivious. It was incredibly embarrassing to me. He had no idea.

He just kept smiling and pushed me aside, "I built something, too. Wanna see it?"

Damn it, he _did_ debug Minecraft. This building must've been the freaking Forbidden Machine he built to access it all. Just my freaking luck. I began trembling while he continued to play, hopping over hills and lakes to get me to what he freaking built. What _had_ he built? I didn't dare ask him. He must've had the same genius spark in his mind to make him build such a strange contraption. I thought the Pork Paladin was bad - hell, was it called the Pork Paladin? I think I freaking mixed that up with Pig Paladin. I dunno. I don't care. All that mattered was the freaking monstrosity that Conner had built. Whatever it could possibly be.

Eventually he arrived at this massive mountain. Not as big as God Mountain. Hell, not even _close_. It was still pretty big. He had placed stairs and two wooden doors on the side of it. Whatever he did to get caught up in Ancient Minecraft must've been in there. I was even more terrified now.

He opened the door and walked inside. My shock was still there, but I was also amazed. I couldn't tell how to respond. I still horrified for my friend's sanity and how it would die if or when he joined The Debuggers. Yet I was absolutely amazed at his work. The mountain was completely hollowed out except for a hole at the top allowing sunlight in. There was a massive pool of water filling the entire mountain - we were standing on a platform over it. In the middle of the mountain, built into the freaking lake of water, was some sort of machine made of stone and redstone.

He had built a freaking water pump. A freaking goddamn _water pump._ How? That was far more genius than I had ever thought!

"That's incredible!" I remarked at the size of the creation, "But what's it for? What's it do?"

That was a good question. All good things had purpose.

"Let me just show you." He said and moved back out the mountain. He climbed up the side and reached the peak where the hole was. He jumped in while I watched in suspense. He fell towards the water pump. I actually thought he was going to die, but I was mistaken. He just kept falling until he landed on some wool flooring. I'd been on Ancient Minecraft longer than he had and I didn't even know wool protected you from falls in there. Then again I never experimented. I was too busy with the freaking Debuggers.

Anyway, he was now standing in some elaborate laboratory he had created. There was hall with red wool as the flooring. There were glass tanks surrounding him filled with water. It seemed like the water pump above sent the water down here. For what, though? My question still remained. There seemed to be no purpose to this creation.

Conner kept going down the hall, passing by every glass tank. Eventually he came to some stairs and traveled down them to one last room. This room answered my question perfectly - this room was filled with lava and water, making innumerable amounts of obsidian. Absolutely incredible. He opened up one of his chests and showed me how he had over two hundred blocks of obsidian. That was insane. This entire thing was a Forbidden Machine? It seemed like too elaborate of a set-up to be forbidden altogether. It sounded impossible to me.

"How long did it take you to make this?" I asked him.

He turned to me and yawned, "I was up all night. I decided to skip school because I knew I would be tired."

Oh, _that's_ why. He didn't skip school because he thought I needed to see something. He was just tired, that's all.

Like he said, he was tired. _Very_ tired. He decided to just give in and go to sleep, leaving me to sit around and do something for myself. I was bored out of my mind since I didn't dare use his computer. I was afraid of what The Debuggers would do to bring him into their little group. Their little freaking cult. Then again, would it be considered "my" little cult? I was a part of it, so that made sense, but I didn't want to think like that. I didn't wanna be a part of a cult. That sounded freaking terrifying.

Instead of browsing his computer, I ended up going through whatever anime he had. I watched some _Cowboy Bebop _ and I think it was an episode of freaking _Dragonball Z_ before realizing I was just wasting away. I knew I had reached a new low when I realized how I had skipped school to go over to my friend's house and watch anime. How stupid of me.

Out of anger with myself, I got onto Conner's computer and checked my email.

**"2 New Emails."**

Well, shit. I wonder what Blackfield could want now. Who was the other, though? Solstice?

**"1 Email From: Blackfield."**

I opened it up and read what he had to say:

_Howard,_

_It has come to our attention that a new user has built a Forbidden Machine, therefore giving him access to the powers of Ancient Minecraft. We feel that it would be wise for you to know that an induction ceremony must be held to bring him into The Debuggers. We will postpone the mission in Xanadu until this new ally becomes a part of the group. We are going to send Octane to handle this one. Be sure to remain out of any affairs that may arise out of this situation._

_Sincerely,_

_Blackfield._

I nearly broke down right there. It was hard not to. Conner wasn't my absolute best friend, but I feared having to watch him go through all the shit that I had to. He was a good man. He didn't deserve this. There wasn't much I could do, though. Octane was smart. I thought he would be able to handle Conner well.

**"1 Email From: Anon."**

Oh.

_Oh._

I had almost completely forgotten about this dude. He kept emailing me before, but stopped once we were done with Forbidden. Why did he have to talk to me, of all people? Horrible, really. People had nothing better to do than terrorize those who had done nothing wrong.

... I didn't do anything wrong, did I?

This made me sit back and wonder whether what The Debuggers was doing was just. I mean, we weren't harming anyone, were we? Then again, there must've been a reason this was the debug mode and not the actual game. There was something hidden deep within Ancient Minecraft. We weren't doing anything wrong. We were just doing the normal thing.

I opened the email from Anon and began to read:

_Wes,_

_CAn you heAr mE? IT'S GETTING HARD to breath in HERE._

_RememBer: DON'T FEAR THE FUTURE._

_Anon._

I honestly wanted to kill myself at this point. No joke, really. The whole thing was pointless. It was unnecessary. All we were doing was going through something that somebody had laid out for us. It was probably just a joke. Maybe somebody _did_ hack us. Maybe it was some professional hacker. I dunno since I didn't know anything about hacking. Then again, The Debuggers were excellent hackers. They'd know if we were being hacked. At least I'd hope they would.

With those emails out of the way, I decided to log onto The Place out of boredom. On there I actually found Lyle sitting in the corner beside the tunnel we were digging. He seemed to be weak, maybe low on health. I walked over to him slowly while he just sat there. He looked freaking dead, I tell you. I thought he was actually dead. I was too afraid to go any further.

"Lyle?" I asked.

Lyle looked up, "Howie? How's it going? What're you doing here?"

"I was bored and..." I looked at his hands, which were bloody, "were you cutting yourself?"

He stood up and walked past me towards the pedestal, "Maybe. I got caught doing it in real life. Minecraft was able to fill that void, though."

What the hell was going on now?

"Lyle, are you alright? I didn't expect you to... You know..." I didn't know what to say, really. It all came as a shock to me.

"Howie, listen to me," He turned to me, "people will scare you. The world will scare you. Just remember that there is nothing scarier than the future."

The future?

Just before Lyle left, I spoke up, "Lyle, are you Anon?"

"Who?" He asked.

"Anon. You know who I'm talking about, right? Are you him?" I asked. It seemed likely.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said honestly.

Yeah, so that theory was out the window. Like it mattered, though. It seemed strange that I got talked to about the future by two different people in nearly the same hour. Anon told me not to fear the future, and Lyle told me that the future is scary. What was I supposed to believe? It all seemed like rubbish to me. I never really called anything rubbish either, but that was complete rubbish. Conner was still fast asleep, too. He wouldn't wake up for another hour or two.

I decided to explore his world a bit more. The water pump intrigued me to no end. He said he called it "Aquatic Oblivion". Sounded badass, I guess, but it didn't change the fact that he was about to be poisoned by the absolute mess that was Ancient Minecraft. I felt sorry for him. He was such a freaking cool dude. He didn't deserve this.

When I got onto his world, which he called "Bacon" (how freaking original), I began looking around at his contraption. I jumped into the pump and wandered around the glass tanks filled with water. It didn't make sense how he was able to make all of this in a single night. Conner was pretty freaking hardcore, I guess. He didn't seem like one to do such a thing, though.

I became a bit bored and decided to get off before I was stopped. I turned around and looked down the hall to see someone standing there. It was only for a second, though, since my sight was blinded by freaking water everywhere. Some jackass had decided to freaking break all the tanks. The place was being flooded now and I was having trouble getting anywhere. Hell, I couldn't even breath. I was looking around, swimming through the mess this person had caused, trying to find him and a way out.

Just as I was about to exit out the pump, I saw him.

It was Octane. He had come to reap Conner's innocence.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Star of Roselight: **Oh man, trust me. Conner was one person who I could always count on to screw things up. I didn't want him involved, but he still did and I regretted ever bringing him into this stupid thing in the start.

**AntVenom: **Yeah, uh, alright. Community is good, I guess. I dunno, I don't hang around on this site too much.

**BladeInTheDark: **At this point in the story (up to this chapter so far, I guess. I dunno.) all that I've gone through has been mentally painful. I'd get headaches and would have to miss school because it could get pretty freaking bad. Later on there might've been a few quirks, but nothing really seemed cool to me. I mean, _maybe_ our powers we got were cool? We barely used them, though. Like, I had my lava wave stuff, but barely used it. It was that kind of stuff that was the coolest I guess.

**Ilikepie91: **Yeah, I'm glad you enjoy it so far.

**loserthatscool: **I thought I was going insane as well. I sort of did, honestly, but not really, if you know what I mean.

**Fantasmic: **Just you wait. This whole thing blew out of proportion very fast. I couldn't really even believe any of it. Don't be afraid to go back onto Minecraft, though. It's an experience worth having. Just not the way I experienced it, though. All that said, things only got worse from here on out.

**Of The Falls: **As writer, I guess I'll say thanks. I contemplated writing about my experiences for a little while before coming into contact with FlyingMidgetProductions again. Since he had an account on here, it seemed like a good chance to get my story out and all. I do the writing while FMP does the chapter naming, uploading, and managing.

**generaltemujin: **Oy, tell me about it. I never expected Conner to get involved. As for your question... I'm not really sure, to be honest. Honestly, I haven't really played Minecraft since the events of this story concluded. I also never played it on anything besides the computer. Sorry.


	18. You Can't Escape Fate

_**Chapter XVIII: You Can't Escape Fate**_

Once I reached above ground and caught my breath, I realized that things weren't going to go too well. Conner was still freaking asleep and I was stuck on his own game. Should I have just left the game and leave Octane alone? That wouldn't solve the problem. Whatever I did, Conner would be screwed. I needed to find some way to bring this end and to keep Conner out of this. He didn't deserve any of it. Octane was a good man, though. Maybe he would listen.

I looked around the area and saw it had been completely wasted. The Aquatic Oblivion was destroyed and trees everywhere were on fire. I understood that The Debuggers thought that approaching other new debuggers was a nice idea, but this wasn't freaking necessary! He was new to the stupid game and had just built a fantastic machine! He didn't deserve this. No, he didn't _at all_. His world didn't either. It would be difficult to speak to Octane since I didn't have a microphone, but I began thinking hard about what to do.

I waited several minutes until seeing Octane finally come out from the underground. He looked around casually and then back at me. He didn't say anything. Just like Solstice did. Was that what they were instructed to do? It seemed pointless. Couldn't they just ask the person if they wanted to join or not? Running away like a freaking coward was pointless. Oh, yeah. He even began _running_ like Solstice did. He just ran while I stared at him in anger. This was stupid. This was _really_ stupid. They had guidelines and everything for recruiting new members? How idiotic. If I had known they were this shallow I'd never have joined.

Despite thinking low of this situation, I followed goddamn Octane.

He would run, stare back at me, then continue running. We were traversing all these different freaking landscapes. I mean, we started out in this grassy area, but got into a desert, began crossing a goddamn lake, and then went into the freaking arctic. He seemed to be putting more effort into drawing me out than Solstice did. Thank god Conner wasn't going through this. Otherwise he'd be terrified. Maybe not, actually. He didn't seem to get scared easily. I still didn't think this was right.

Octane finally stopped and stared over at me. I stopped and contemplated typing something into the chat box. You know, to let him know that it was Howard and not Conner he was dealing with. I didn't wanna lead him on anymore. I also didn't want to cause anything to happen between us. It always has to happen like that on TV. Someone will do something, won't tell someone about it, and then the two people get pissed at each other. It would be a good time to let him know it was me.

"Octane." I typed. If I already knew his name, he must've already figured out it wasn't Conner.

"How do you know my name?" Octane questioned.

I turned to Conner, who had rolled in his bed, "It's me, Howie."

Octane sounded surprised, "Howie? What are you doing here? You're interfering! That's not what Blackfield wants."

"I'm just telling you to stop and let this guy go. He's a friend of mine and he can't handle the kind of stuff we go through." I typed.

"You want me to just stop?" Octane approached me slowly, "You say this guy can't handle all this psychological torment?"

I nodded. Well, sort of. My avatar nodded. Technically, it was Conner's avatar, but whatever.

"You obviously don't understand what the hell is going on! We've all been scarred by what we've experienced, Howie. This guy has a chance to join us and replace Gage in the team. Blackfield doesn't want to let such an opportunity slip away from us. Where is the guy who built that Forbidden Machine?" Octane looked around the world. We were standing on a frozen lake.

I turned back to Conner, who was beginning to stir awake.

"Where is he, Howie?" Octane asked again. I never actually heard him get mad before. This was the first time.

"I'm sorry, Octane. You have to understand." I said and shut off the computer.

Conner stood up and rubbed his eyes, "Man, how long was I asleep?"

I looked at the clock beside his bed. It read 2:30. It was afternoon. I had been sitting in his room all freaking day instead of going to school like I should have. Stupid, stupid me.

"All day," I said, "come on, let's give your computer a break."

"A break? You weren't playing on it all day, were you?" He asked. He was joking, though. He had this grin and sort of chuckled when he asked that. It made me feel relieved. I had just saved his ass and he wouldn't get mad. Thank goodness.

We were sitting on his back porch, watching as cars drove by, bringing the teenagers home from school. Conner was sitting in a metal chair while I was sitting on the wooden steps on his porch. It was magnificently sunny, too. There was light wind and the sky was bright blue. It didn't feel like February at all. It felt more like May or June. It was perfect.

Maybe it was just the fact that I had been sitting in his room all day. I was actually feeling different. I felt more energetic and happy. I began thinking straighter. It was all coming back to me now. The talk with Octane right before I shut off the computer.

I turned to Conner, "Conner, do you know what I do with debugged Minecraft?"

"You mess around. That's what I do, anyway. Isn't it cool?" He smiled.

I stood up, shaking my head, "No. No it is not! You don't know what I've gone through these past weeks. I've watched things unfold that were never meant to be seen. Some things were hidden for a reason. Unless you want to see those things and be scarred mentally, then I suggest you stay off Minecraft for good."

"For good? Why? What're you talking about?" By the way he looked at me, I knew I was acting very strange.

He wasn't getting it. He needed to, too. I couldn't allow him to meet Octane. That would only bring pain and suffering to him.

"Listen to me and listen closely," I kneeled down beside his chair, "when I debugged Minecraft on accident, it brought me into contact with a group of people... a group of people called The Debuggers. They tasked themselves with exploring the secrets of Ancient Minecraft even though it is a pointless mission. I've seen what they're like and you don't wanna get involved. I beg of you, Conner, stay away from them and if anyone mysterious tries to contact you, don't answer! Don't respond! Don't do anything!"

I swear, in all seriousness, the look he gave me was freaking priceless. At the time I thought nothing of it, but looking back now, it was just absolutely hilarious. It was a mixture of "What're you saying?" and "Are you freaking kidding me?". It was hilarious. Again, though, I didn't think about that. I was just hoping he would listen and keep safe.

Luckily, he agreed. He said that he wouldn't do anything dangerous and would stay off Minecraft. I thought that I'd have to persuade him or something stupid like that, but he took it like I gave it. Actually, let's not say that. Let's say, uh... I dunno. Fine, whatever, let's go with that. He accepted what I told him like it was fact (it was) and that was that. Almost right after I was called by my mom to come home. With the feeling of success, I began to go back home. I had just saved Conner's sanity. It felt good man. It felt real good.

Even if Conner wasn't going to be involved with The Debuggers, I realized that _I_ still had to. We would have our next meeting on Wednesday and this would be where we discussed our next mission to Xanadu. Damn, I had nearly forgotten all about the mission. I'd gotten all wrapped up in protecting Conner's innocence that I remembered the whole deal with Xanadu and... and Gage and... well, never mind. I remember is all. I went home, ate, and began looking forward to the next meeting.

For those four days between that Friday and the next meeting, I felt different. It was a feeling that felt all too familiar. It was the feeling of missing something. I was missing something. I felt empty. It was stronger this time, too. It was emotionally painful. My parents saw that I was in pain and repeatedly asked me what was wrong. It made me feel shallow. I felt like I was missing something yet didn't know what it was. It was awful.

I felt depressed, even. I felt isolated. I had to sit in my bedroom to hide my pain from my parents. It was out of nowhere, too. I couldn't stop it. All I could do was cry, think, cry some more, and wait for it all to be over. In those four days I didn't contact anyone from The Debuggers. I never got an email from Blackmail or Solstice or even freaking Anon. Was I missing that connection? Was I just feeling lonely?

That Wednesday morning I felt slightly better. The feeling was still there, but not as strong. Thank goodness for that, too. I was afraid people at school would start to ridicule me on my sudden emotional change. It was difficult to hold this emotion in. I felt like I just wanted to die. I couldn't, though. I could only sit and stare at the blank walls of the classroom. Eventually I would be beyond those walls, but all I could do was wait. Wait and wait until the feeling died away and the wall no longer terrorized my mind. It was like indirect mental terrorism.

That night, I jumped right onto the computer and prepared to go to The Place. The Debuggers weren't for me, and this time I was certain.

I logged on and it took longer than usual. A few minutes, actually. When I appeared, I was on the pedestal and everyone was surrounding it, facing me as I looked around. What the hell was going on? They weren't going to freaking betray me all of a sudden, were they? I kept on looking at each member until I saw him.

Octane. He was staring at me, silent and still.

"Howie," Blackfield spoke, "if you could please step down. We are about to begin the initiation ceremony."

Initiation?

No. Don't freaking tell me.

I stepped off the pedestal and turned around to see him standing there. His voice was shaky as he spoke directly to me.

"I'm sorry, Howie. I couldn't help myself," Conner said.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**NiGHTfall48: **Sorry that I may have caused your brain to split in half. Sometimes that's a good thing though, I guess? I dunno. It might open you up to new things. You know, like knowledge and stuff. I think, I'm just guessing here. Trust me, you'll see what Conner ends up with soon enough, though.

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **That's very kind of you, dude. It was a horrible time, but I don't think a dedicated server or anything is necessary. All I want is to make sure people are safe from anything like Ancient Minecraft. In a way, I guess you could say Octane was testing me. I don't really think that was the case, though. He was pretty pissed, but knew that it would be pointless to test me. He wanted to talk to Conner, not me.


	19. Nostalgia

_**Chapter XIX: Nostalgia**_

That single moment where I heard the fear in Conner's voice was when I realized that everything was about to go to hell.

"Alright, sir, tell us your name." Blackfield requested. Conner looked around some more. He didn't even know what he had just gotten himself into.

I looked around as everyone just stared at him. More importantly, I wonder why Blackfield had known my name before even initiating me as a member, but had to ask Conner for his name. Everything about this "initiation" seemed like a freaking cult. I couldn't stand it. I wanted to step out and say something. Something along the lines of "Can everyone just stop and go out and get actual lives instead of living in Minecraft?". I was _actually_ about to say that, but stopped myself since I would sound like a huge hypocrite.

"My name is Conner." Conner uttered. He was terrified. So was I.

"My name is Blackfield. You may think I am the leader of this group, but there really is no leader." Blackfield introduced himself.

Oh boy, here we go. Everyone had to go around and tell something about themselves. I swear, it was bad enough in freaking school, I didn't wanna have to do this on Minecraft, too. The initiation continued on with everyone explaining who they were. It got to Solstice, who was right before me, and she just looked at Conner suspiciously. I dunno what it was, but she just had this strange glare in her eye. She just kept staring while everyone waited for her introduction.

Then she turned to me, winked, and looked back, "Yeah, I'm Solstice. I don't do much around here."

Perfect response, but what the hell was with that wink? God, I just wanted this all to go away. I was tired as is. Now I had to wonder what the hell Solstice is trying to tell me. Winks could mean anything, really. Anything at all. I put that thought aside since the initiation was complete and we would _actually_ get some work done that night.

Conner walked off the pedestal and stood beside me between the columns while Blackfield took his position up in front of everybody, "Since we now are with another member, I feel that we are more than ready to tackle Xanadu. Whatever lies in that server _must_ be discovered. We will never stop searching until that place is explored one hundred percent!"

"Howie, I'm scared." Conner whispered to me.

I didn't respond. I _knew_ he was scared. I could feel the goddamn feeling of fright emanating from his body. I didn't need to say anything. I hoped he knew I felt sorry for him. I really did. There wasn't much I could for him at that point, though. There wasn't much I could do for either of us. All we could do was keep waiting.

"On Friday night we'll begin exploring. If we do not finding anything that night, we shall set up a Safe Base, probably using Solstice's Garden of Rowan, and continue the next day. If exploration takes longer than the weekend... so be it." Blackfield finished and stepped off the pedestal. I guess that was the end of the meeting since everyone began just walking around and talking.

I was honestly surprised by all the attention that Conner was getting from everyone. It might've been the uneasiness rubbing off on everyone, but they seemed to approach him from everywhere and comfort him. It was obvious he was nervous. I was nervous too, though, but no one comforted me. I was left to comfort myself and it still hadn't worked at this point.

Since there was plenty of spare time, I went overt to the tunnel and began digging. It felt lonely, but right. I wanted to be alone, really. It felt good to have time to myself. Soon Solstice joined me and we began to drive down the goddamn walls of dirt in front of us. Watching as our inventory filled with dirt felt good. We'd be out of this tunnel eventually. Some day we would see the other side.

We mined in silence until I decided to break it, "Garden of Rowan?"

"It's the Forbidden Machine that I built. The stupid thing brought me into this mess," she was becoming furious just thinking about it, I could tell, "it's this fortress-like thing that, for some reason, was forbidden. I don't know what it even really is supposed to do! It's just a building!"

"Interesting. Same with The Pig Paladin I made," I said, beginning to realize how stupid 'The Pig Paladin' sounded in comparison to other names like 'Garden of Rowan' and 'Aquatic Oblivion', "it didn't do anything and yet it was forbidden."

"It hurt the pigs, didn't it?"

She had a point. Gotta think of the animals.

"So, now can I ask you a question?" She began, stopping to look back down the tunnel, "Do you know the new guy?"

"Conner?"

She nodded and began mining again, "You two seemed to know each other right off the bat. It seemed like you were familiar with one another."

Should I have told her? It was a question that I had to think over for a minute. Lying to her would only hurt our relationship, but admitting it would only bring the whole deal with Octane back up. Octane probably freaking hated me now. He wanted to kill me, probably. I couldn't blame him, though. Sometimes I wanted to kill myself as well.

"Yeah, I know him." I admitted.

"From real life?"

"We're neighbors."

She stopped mining, "Wait, you didn't _bring_ him into this, did you?"

"What do you mean?" She was confusing me now.

"Did you show him Ancient Minecraft? And then made him do it as well?" She was seriously mad at me. This wasn't good. Maybe I shouldn't have told the truth. It's not always the truth they want.

"I didn't make him do anything! He did it of his own free will, just as I did. Get off my back, will you?"

She did. She stopped and went back to mining quietly.

"I'm sorry." She stopped and just stood there while I kept digging.

"Were your parents fighting again?"

She nodded.

Before we could continue talking, Conner began to walk down the tunnel towards us. He was carrying an iron shovel and looking at both Solstice and I with curiosity. Maybe a bit jealousy as well. I dunno, there wasn't much to see since it was all blocks and pixels on his face. I liked to think he just kind of walked in on us with a bit of confusion. That would be hilarious, honestly.

"What's going on here?" He asked.

"Nothing. Wanna help us dig?" Solstice asked.

He didn't even respond. He stood between me and Solstice and began digging straight forward, creating a narrow hallway right in the middle of the tunnel. Solstice and I just watched as he kept going. The tunnel was much bigger than either of us thought. We left the tunnel and watched as everyone began to sign off for the night.

"Are you ready for Xanadu?" Solstice asked.

"I guess so."

"I decided I wanna go, too."

"Really?"

She nodded, "I want this thing to end already. This whole thing is hurting your mind; it's hurting my mind; it's hurting Conner's, I think; it's even hurting Blackfield's. Once this thing comes to an end, we can all move on. We won't have to worry about what might lie beyond what we see. All we'd have to worry about is... well, nothing. We'd be carefree once again."

_Disconnected_.

To be honest, I wasn't mad this time. Well, I was still a bit pissed at Conner for disobeying me and still going onto Minecraft, but it felt great knowing that Solstice was feeling good enough to go to Xanadu. I turned off my computer and picked up my phone, which had one text message from Conner.

"sorry :("

He had sent it prior to the meeting. Poor guy.

The days were going by faster after that meeting. I felt a bit more relaxed knowing that Conner had a chance of being okay. It was now pretty much Solstice, Conner, and I against The Debuggers, but not really. We were just against what they wanted, which was nothing. All they wanted was to see what was hidden within a game. Couldn't they just do that with their special hacking powers, though? I knew nothing about hacking, but I thought it would be possible to get all of this over with just by hacking. Then I thought whatever was hidden must've been hidden within the game itself and not its files. That made sense, right?

When Friday afternoon arrived, it was cloudy and I was happy. There was chance of rain with many predicting a big storm. I didn't mind. I liked storms and dreary weather in general. It seemed to be where I felt most at peace. It reminded me of when I was little and I would just run around in the rain, wearing my yellow jacket and rain boots, splashing in puddles while walking home with my mother and father. It was the nostalgia I missed. Goddamn I miss it all.

As soon as I stepped in, someone knocked on my front door. Somehow I hadn't seen them while walking in. When I approached it, I could see Conner from out the window. He was dressed in all black and carrying a bundle of flowers. He looked like he had been crying. No, not crying. Freaking _bawling._ He looked like he had just cried all the blood out of his body. It was sad. It was depressing. I wanted to cry. Hell, the thought still makes me wanna cry.

I opened the door and invited him inside, but he shook his head, "What's the matter, Conner?"

"Come on," he pulled me outside, "we're going to my mom's grave."


	20. Vengeance for the Gone

_**Chapter XX: Vengeance for the Gone**_

I feel it's necessary to go ahead and explain just _how_ mind boggling the whole deal with Ancient Minecraft was. You guys, behind your computer screens, reading my accounts of the journey, think you understand. You think you know what I've been through. When you don't. Not even a freaking little bit. I have experienced the past like I never should have. The sentiment that I placed at the beginning of the first chapter came from how everything unfolded and how it wasn't necessarily my past that I uncovered, but a past, in general, that was never meant to live on like it should have.

It made me feel like a criminal.

But that's the thing. The entire ordeal felt _real_. It didn't feel like Minecraft. It felt like I was in the real world, talking to real people, killing real people, and falling in love with real people. Instead, I was just in Minecraft, talking to sort of real people, killing sort of real people, and falling in love with people I knew nothing about. It was symbolic of what I had become. I dedicated _so much_ time to this thing that I began to lose grip on reality. It became a portal into a world that wasn't there. Was Minecraft always meant to be like this? No one was meant to think about that because no one was meant to know this part of the game existed. Especially me.

What I'm trying to say is that don't live your life like you have millions more to go. I wasted so much time and became the insane man I am today. Don't waste your time in front of screens talking to people you don't know when you could be going out and talking to those that you knew and loved. For those that are particularly young, I mean this especially. I don't want you to think that the world is safe. It isn't. You must be prepared for it since I wasn't. Fulfill your life because your childhood isn't all there is. You will or have already lost your innocence to tragedy as I have. Don't be afraid, though.

Embrace it as moving on.

I figured this all that day when I went to Conner's mother's grave with him. It was beginning to rain and we stood there for ten minutes. I was wondering when we'd leave while he didn't. He only remembered her. He only remembered what she was like and not what she became when her cancer emerged. It was a beautiful thing that I didn't realize at the time. He was a kind boy. The kindest, perhaps, and I miss him these days. If I had been more like him, could I have changed for the better?

The entire time I felt melancholic. I felt like the freaking angst ridden teenager I was. What made it even worse was what Conner said to me before we left. He said, "Howie, don't lose anyone. No one wants it. Don't lose yourself either. No one wants it. Just be thankful for all you have and live on."

Was that how I was acting? Was I just complaining the entire time? Was I just angry with myself this entire time?

No, it wasn't The Debuggers I was mad with - it was myself, and I freaking hated my stupid self even more after realizing this.

Conner and I went home and agreed to do our best in Xanadu to make sure no one lost their lives. Even though they wouldn't actually die, we didn't wanna lose them in anyway. We were happy with what we had, for the most part. I wanted to keep it that way.

When I signed onto The Place, I looked around and only saw Solstice and Blackfield in the corner. Their own relationship made me feel as if something else was going on that I didn't know about. It made me a bit jealous, but I didn't try to act off that jealousy. They were my friends, really. I wouldn't push it to the next level and force them into anything bad. I was beginning to understand the feelings of other people. After listening to Conner and Solstice pour their thoughts out to me regarding to what they've been through, I knew I had to be content. Trust me, though, I was.

"Howie, come here." Blackfield called over to me.

When I approached them, Conner signed on right afterwards. He followed me over to them where blood marks were all over the floor and wall. Again, this wasn't in normal Minecraft.

"What do you think happened while we were gone?" Solstice wondered aloud.

I felt horrible after remembering seeing Lyle cutting himself for no apparent reason. He must've left all of this. Either that or he came back and began cutting some more. I didn't expect such an attitude from him. I wish I could've helped. I should have helped, too. I felt horrible, but decided that there was nothing I could do. All I could do was continue on being myself.

Blackfield seemed to drop the subject right here, "We were just trying to pass the time until the other debuggers arrived. We didn't have much else to do outside of here, so we came right to it. What about you guys? You're pretty early."

"We just want to relax," I said, "we've really bonded and see that we've been through... similar things, I guess you could say."

I didn't know whether Conner agreed with the way I handled all of that. He didn't say anything, so I guessed I did alright.

Slowly did the other members of The Debuggers sign on. When Lyle appeared I felt sick since we were standing around the blood stains he left behind. The real person that hurt me inside was Octane. As soon as he appeared lastly, I didn't feel safe. He kept staring at me. He must've thought I was plotting something to take The Debuggers down. It seemed just, though, since I did interfere with his mission to find Conner. I tried to shrug it off as nothing since it was, after all, just a video game.

When everyone was in The Place, Blackfield stepped up to the pedestal, "Everyone, gather around! I must discuss our next mission into the mysterious Xanadu server! First of all, let's discuss the possibility of cloning. While I initially investigated the server, I discovered several programs included in the coding. These programs were for duplication, but their true purpose is still a mystery since we have not stepped foot in the server yet. I want everyone to be careful. We'll probably be forming three parties of three to travel in. Let's get those sorted out before departing."

I immediately looked to Solstice and Conner, who were eying me. Well, _that_ was simple enough. The other two parties, as I recall, were Tyrus, Contra, and Ashland and Lyle, Octane, and Blackfield, even though Blackfield actually wanted to be in a group with Solstice and I. That made me feel a bit giddy knowing that he respected me to an extent.

With that all sorted out, we began signing off The Place and onto Xanadu.

Upon entering the server for the first time, I looked around and saw that we were in a box. Not necessarily a box, but a room. It was a boxy room, though. A _square_ room, really. It was also made of the same metal that the hallway in Forbidden was made of. Where the metal came from, I still didn't know. It sounded like sheet metal when you stepped on it, though. We were all packed into this small room, looking around. We all wondered the same thing: why weren't we outside?

For that matter, just where were we?

Blackfield went to the front of the room where a door was. It was a metal door, similar to the rest of the room, which wasn't available in normal Minecraft obviously. The door seemed to be electronically built. There were blue, red, and green lines going up and down and left and right on it. He tried opening it before turning to everyone and announcing a bit of a change of rules to the three groups thing.

"Everyone, listen up! I will now say that every group must have atleast _one_ person capable of hacking these doors open! They're locked and whatever keys that were here to unlock them are now non-existent. Please sort yourself accordingly." He finished and turned back to the door to finish opening it.

Before I could even begin worrying, Conner said that he was a good hacker. That made me feel at ease, knowing that we didn't have to change our group at all. Though it felt more like Blackfield made that rule just so he could, again, be in a group with Solstice and I. How childish. Actually, it seemed more like he just wanted to be a in a group with Solstice, and he saw how close we were. Even _more_ childish.

Nonetheless, the door eventually opened and everyone piled out of it with their groups. We were now standing at an intersection. There were two hallways going left and right. This sort of ruined the whole purpose of the "three groups" thing that Blackfield came up with. Now one groups would have to go one way and two groups the other way.

Blackfield, who was still at the front, turned back to everyone, "Alright, who will it be?"

I turned to Solstice and Conner to see if they wanted to be the group to go alone. They weren't sure either. I wasn't. Solstice was worried we wouldn't stand a chance against whatever was hidden in that place. Conner thought we had a chance, but was still a bit scared. The thought of losing was more evident in my mind. I didn't want it to end here. I wanted to keep going. I wanted to see the end of this journey.

While everyone was contemplating what to do, noises began to echo from down the left hallway.

The sounds. They were laughing.

"Creepers?" I wondered.

"Creepers laugh?" Conner asked.

Apparently he hadn't experienced debugged creepers yet. Didn't matter to me, really, but whatever. Everyone began to shut up when they heard the sounds. Nothing was going according to plan now. Everything was just a big freaking mess.

"Alright, everyone! I need three people to remain with me to fight!" Blackfield ordered, "Solstice, Octane, and Howie! Come here! Lyle, go and take everyone else to safety!"

Lyle nodded and began leading everyone else down the right hallway.

Solstice and I stood with Blackfield at the beginning of the left hallway, our weapons in hand and prepared to fight. As the began appearing, the mobs showed to not be only creepers, but skeletons and spiders as well. I guess all mobs could laugh and cry just like debugged creepers. That didn't really matter at the time, though. All that mattered was that the four of us would win and get through this alive. We charged at the mobs with our weapons and began depleting the army of mobs instantly. I don't even know if anyone got hurt. I mean, Solstice put on her bedrock armor right in the beginning. Octane and Blackfield were pretty skilled fighters as well. As for me, it was just luck that I didn't get hit.

When the mobs were killed, we stood victoriously. The groups were disbanded before they even started, but that didn't matter to anyone. We had won and seemed to be going somewhere. Blackfield (and everyone else, I guess) decided that it would be best to continue down this hallway. You know, to see where it would lead us. We all followed, two people in the front and two in the back.

Solstice, of course, was brought to the front by Blackfield, leaving me in the back with goddamn Octane.

I tried to think that nothing would happen between us. Just as I thought that, he leaned to my ear and whispered.

"I haven't forgotten."

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**NiGHTfall48: **Noted. Again, I was really just guessing at that point. I was never one to really teach, you know? I always thought I'd be a pretty awesome teacher, but I hated learning, so that would suck. But yeah, soggy and bready is good, too, I guess. Sort of like cereal in milk? I dunno. I give up.

**manaphymajic1999: **Sorry, but I don't actually remember. It was a very complicated structure that I built a year ago. I don't remember anything really about it and I'd rather not divulge information on it either. Be creative, though. Build whatever you think of. In Minecraft, I know that's possible.

**BladeInTheDark: **Yeah, when the whole thing was finally freaking over, things weren't the same. Blackfield, Solstice, and I remain in contact and are still good friends.


	21. The Logic System

_**Chapter XXI: The Logic System**_

As I continued to fear for my life while traveling with Octane down this hallway to the unknown, I couldn't help but wonder what Conner might be getting into with the others. This place was abnormal, most definitely. Not a single one of us expected this be what Xanadu would be. We expected just another generic Minecraft world. This was something else, though. Something more terrifying. We continued on, though. We knew what had to be done.

Every now and then we'd come across a group of mobs wanting our blood. We'd kill them, no sweat, and then continue on. Eventually we stopped at a noteworthy spot in the hallway. Where we stopped was at a window. It was the only window we had seen in the entire place up to that point. On the other side of the window was what looked like a lab. There was a metal stretcher, metal book cases, metal freaking computers - metal everything. How was there a freaking computer in there, though? Damn, Ancient Minecraft had _everything._

There was a door to the right of the window, which was on the left wall. Blackfield hacked it open and we entered into the lab-like place. Solstice and I looked at the books on the bookcases (you could _actually_ read them here, but they seemed to be excerpts from child books) while Octane kept watch for any mobs. Blackfield went for the computer to see if there was anything on it. It felt like we'd find nothing since Blackfield seemed to have found nothing, until-

"Guys, come here." Blackfield said to Solstice and I. Octane remained at the door.

On the computer screen was a list of supposed files and the word "Extract". The files were "Wrath", "Gluttony", "Pride", "Lust", "Envy", "Greed", and "Sloth". I remembered that these were the seven deadly sins, but I only remembered that because of freaking _Fullmetal Alchemist_. What was the point of the "Extract" though? It was just sort of there. Blackfield said that it just sort of popped up on the screen. I felt like leaving it alone and seeing what else was down the hall, but he thought it would be important to press it. So he did.

As soon as he did, however, the entire place began shaking vigorously. I fell over and lost two entire hearts while Solstice fell against the wall and Blackfield held onto the computer. I rolled over and saw that Octane had fallen to his knees, but seemed alright. I stood up and wanted to hit Blackfield badly for not listening to us, "We said to not press it! Why did you?"

"Listen to me, Howie. It did something, did it not?" He asked. It _did_ do something, but we weren't sure whatever it was. I didn't reply. I just left the room. Once we concluded that nothing else was in that room to inspect, we began down the hallway again. It was getting darker and none of us had torches to use. It was even worse because there was no way to make any freaking torches since we were surrounded by completely metal. It was scary to me.

Honestly, the more we traveled into this place, the more I felt like I was in an insane asylum. The eeriness of it all felt like it. Plus, the structure of it felt like an asylum. Was that what this was meant for? Were we going insane and forced into this place? That couldn't be it. At least I hoped it wasn't. What did the seven deadly sin thing mean then? We would have to go on to find out. This place was horrifying. I didn't wanna go on anymore. I was literally to scared.

We reached the end of the hallway much later on. There was yet another door that Blackfield had to hack into, though this one took longer than usual. It must've been more complicated, I guess. Once it was open, we went through and found ourselves in another lab-like room. There was another stretcher with more computers on the far wall. Blackfield and I went to the computers while Solstice and Octane began looking around the rest of the room for clues or hints or whatever.

These computers brought up the same goddamn thing. The seven deadly sins were on the screen along with the word "export". There were two computers here and we pressed export, ready for the goddamn earthquake to follow. Nobody got hurt this time, but we wondered what the hell we were missing now. There was nothing else down this hallway. Since we seemed to had found the end of it, we decided to make our way back to the other hallway to meet up with the others.

As we were almost there, though, we were nearly killed by the biggest earthquake of all. We didn't even use any computers - it felt like four earthquakes packed into one. Once it was finally over (I legitimately thought we'd all die here) we ran back to find the others waiting for us in the intersection. They seemed as shaken as we were, but looked healthy. At least nobody had died yet.

"Did you guys find any computers?" Lyle asked.

I nodded, "Three. We extracted something. Did you guys feel the earthquakes?"

"Yeah. We found computers as well. They must be connected somehow." Contra said.

We were too focused on the earthquakes and theorizing what could've happened to even notice that a goddamn hallway had appeared next to us, to the left of our group. You know, across from where we spawned in Xanadu. The hallway was pitch black, but the only other way we could possibly go. So we did, fearing for our lives and sanity. It was dark and foreboding. None of us wanted to be here anymore. It was at this point that we all actually considered signing out and keeping off Minecraft for a while. I mean, I didn't know if that's what the others thought, but that's what I thought.

As we were walking, I could feel Conner come near me, whispering, "Are we gonna be alright?"

"I hope so." I said. I wasn't sure at all. This could very well be the end of us all. Then we'd all go insane from not knowing what lies at the end of Ancient Minecraft.

We reached the end of the hallway and a sign with a lever on the wall behind it. The hallway was too narrow for everyone to see the sign, but since I was towards the front, I could still read it through the dark. It read, "The Logic System".

"Logic System?" I said aloud so everyone knew what we had found.

"What is that?" Solstice asked.

Conner joined me in the front, pushing Octane back a bit, "Well, that sounds very much like a formal system, which is sort of the name for equations and stuff. Like there will be _a bunch_ of variables and things we can put together for codes and such. What the sign is trying to tell us... I don't know. Why don't you pull the lever?"

"I don't wanna pull the lever!" I whined. God, I hated whining.

Blackfield pushed his way past us and pulled the lever down.

Another earthquake began again. It was the worst of all. Everyone was rolling around, hitting each other, losing health by the second. When the quake finally ended, I stood up and saw that a door was now where the sign and lever was. Everybody slowly stood up and, before I even dared opening the door, I counted out everyone to make sure we were alright. I counted three times before realizing something was off.

I only counted eight.

"Who is down?" I shouted anxiously.

"Me!" I heard Ashland shout from the floor.

Contra and Tyrus picked her up and propped her up on their shoulders. They carried her over to me where she told me her legs were crippled from the quakes. That wasn't freaking good. Not at all, but we couldn't stop. We had to continue on. It would be best to keep her out of the action. I didn't even expect that to be a feature of Ancient Minecraft. You know, breaking your legs or arms or whatever. Then again, this was a game where you could freaking cut yourself.

With Ashland sticking with Contra and Tyrus, I opened the door and proceeded through, wondering when the hell I had become leader. On the other side of the door was a marvelous discovery. It was quite possibly the greatest thing I had ever seen in Minecraft. We were standing on a platform made of metal. In front of us was an endless pit, but we could barely see it for a reason. All along the walls over the abyss were towers emerging and then disappearing. They were white. Some extended all the way across the pit while some only went a little bit. There were hundreds of them. Across the abyss, _far_ across the abyss, I could see another platform with a door in it. That must've been where we had to go.

Blackfield stood beside me, marveling at our discovery, "These must be towers of data. This must've been why I couldn't read any of the files in Xanadu's programming."

Solstice and Conner approached me and looked out at the towers of data. This was The Logic System.

"Are we supposed to cross those?" Conner noticed the platform across the abyss.

"If so, we'd better get started. Howie, if you could lead the way while I back everyone up." Blackfield ordered. Damn, he had just put me in a leadership role. I was really coming along in his eyes.

"Hold it!" Octane shouted before I could begin.

I turned around nervously and saw him approach me slowly.

"It's about time I come out with it and say that Howard isn't the man you think he is," Octane began trying to make me into someone that I was not, "I have seen the true side to this traitor. He attempted to interfere with my quest to bring Conner into our group!"

Everyone was looking at me with surprise.

Just then, I heard a ring on my computer, notifying me that I had gotten an email.

"Why should we let him continue running our group when he is only here to destroy it?" Octane sounded condescending, to say the least.

**"1 New Email" **it read.

"We shouldn't!" Octane continued while I checked the email.

**"1 Email From: Anon."**

Oh god no. Not now.

"We should bring this scum down before he can destroy us!"

I read the email.

_Wes,_

_Run. NOW._

_Anon._

I returned to the game and found everyone wasn't staring at me, but at Octane.

"What is it? Why won't you believe me?" Octane was sounding more crazy than I was.

"We trust him." Solstice said.

"He wouldn't hurt us." Conner said.

"You have no proof." Blackfield echoed the same sentiment.

Was I really that important to them?

"Damn it! All of you are blinded by your idiocy!" Octane ran at me with his sword, "I'll have to finish him myself!"

I turned and jumped off the edge onto one of the data towers. As I landed, it started inserting itself into the white wall. I ran along it and jumped to another tower that was emerging while Octane remained on the platform.

"Running away, are you?" Octane laughed.

"Right," I said, taking out my golden sword, "because I _know_ you'll follow me."

As a matter of fact, he did. He was fast, too. Like, _really_ freaking fast. He jumped onto one tower and jumped to the next almost instantly. I had to keep running without stopping in order to keep away from him. Sadly, though, he _did _reach me and I had to fight him off at this point. He ran at me and swung at me horizontally. I just jumped backwards and slashed at him when his defense was down. He jumped back and I was able to get to the next tower with that small window of opportunity. Was this what Anon had warned me about? He told me to run. Had he told me to run from Octane? If so, how did he know about that? Was he in Xanadu with us?

The notification sound for my emails rang again.

**"1 New Email."**

****Damn it, not now.

**"1 Email From: Anon."**

****Again?

_Howard,_

_Keep running. He'll be there soon. Keep running. He'll be there soon. HE'LL BE THERE SOON._

_Anon._

__Who will?


	22. Dances With the Dark

_**Chapter XXII: Dances With the Dark**_

Goddamn, was Octane fast! I heavily underestimated his speed. I thought he chose the ninja as his avatar simply because it looked cool. It turned out he must've chosen it because he was, somehow, ungodly fast. I couldn't outrun him for long. Eventually I'd have to stop and actually defend myself. He would soon be upon me. Whether or not Octane was who Anon was talking about, I wasn't sure. All I knew was that my life was at risk. I continued to run, eventually getting to higher ground and looking back to see everyone else watching in horror as Octane continued to pursue me.

He reached me and corner me on an edge where I had nowhere to go. I was on the far edge of a tower, shaking in real life, as Octane approached me with his sword. He stopped short a bit and sighed heavily, "You thought you were smart. You thought you were _brilliant_. The problem is that you thought of yourself as some messiah. You thought you could take us down. You thought you'd troll us and make fun of us all this time. I knew you couldn't be trusted from the beginning. When you decided to try and protect Conner only solidified my reasoning. You must be stopped."

"Now hold on a second!" I shouted as he approached me some more, "This is completely immature!"

"How so? I'm doing what no one else could do."

I gulped as this would be my only chance to talk my way out of this death sentence, "No one wants death. In real life or in here. You can go ahead and see that everyone is scared that either of us might die. That's the same reaction they had when Gage was killed. Death is horrible and I'm sure you understand that."

Apparently that wasn't good enough since he just came at me again and began hacking wildly. Like, seriously, I thought this was the absolute end. I blocked all of them and fell off the tower, just barely landing on another one. This whole situation felt surreal. As I fell, I looked all around me and felt like I was in a horrible dream with no escape. I saw Octane's head appear over the edge of the tower above me. He cursed slightly and then jumped after me. I lost two more hearts upon landing, but got right back up and continued running. Whether or not I survived, I had to keep the others out of this. Octane could not, by any reason, hurt them. It would be freaking unfair.

"Howie!" Solstice shouted my name. She must've been the most scared other than Conner and possibly Blackfield. She jumped onto a tower and took out her bedrock sword, determined to help me, I guess. She ran after me and jumped between towers, attempting to sneak up on Octane. The thing was that one did not simply sneak up on a freaking ninja. They could only hope to startle him slightly. If they did successfully surprise him, then it would be the only time in centuries, I guess.

I felt horrible bringing Solstice into this. Then again, it wasn't necessarily my fault. It was just Octane overreacting. If he could be stopped, then there probably wouldn't be any more fighting within the group. I landed on another tower and turned around just as Octane landed behind me. We clashed swords multiple times before Solstice appeared behind him. She began swinging at him, but he moved right out of the way and pushed me over the edge. I landed on a nearby tower, keeping most of my health, while the fear of leaving Solstice alone with Octane fell over me.

Once I got back up and began looking around for a way up to Octane and Solstice, I noticed Blackfield and the others jumping after to save me. Well, save Solstice at this point. I could obviously protect myself. I wasn't too sure about Solstice. She was very strong, but could she really outsmart Octane enough to win?

I met up with the others on a tower and we decided to charge Octane and perhaps corner him. It was here that we contemplated whether it would be smart to actually kill him. Did he deserve to die and lose any chance of seeing the end of Ancient Minecraft with us? If we didn't kill him, he might not stop. It was a horrible thing to think about. We hated having one of our own die, but having to see Octane go through this at this point was horrible. We had no choice.

"Howie, get Solstice out of there. We'll push him overboard." Blackfield ordered.

I nodded and began hopping the data towers to where Solstice was hanging on for dear life. Her bedrock armor was actually breaking! How the hell was freaking Octane able to do that? Was bedrock not as strong as it was in normal Minecraft? That didn't freaking matter. I had to get Solstice out of there. I jumped behind Octane and hit him. When he turned around, both Solstice and I jumped to another tower. We continued hopping until we were out of reach.

We turned back around as the ambush began. "What is going on? Why is Octane acting like this?" Solstice was more scared than I was.

"Because that's who he is," I said, nervous as to whether the ambush would work, "we can't change that. We'll have to put a stop to his insanity somehow." It was then that I looked past the tower and saw Ashland's body on the far platform. She looked still. She looked dead.

"Ashland?" Solstice said as she looked on in horror. Was she?...

The duo turned their focus back to the ambush, which had finally begun. Blackfield and Lyle took the front while the others backed them up. They cornered Octane to the edge where he was swinging his sword mindlessly. My heart was pounding with excitement. We were about to bring him to an end. We would finally be able to move on.

Sadly, that isn't how it worked out. Octane leaped off the tower and fell into the abyss. What the hell was he going to do? Just kill himself? He blended in instantly because of his dark texture. However, I was first to notice him appearing again. He was teleporting, not jumping. Freaking _teleporting_! I know that sounds absurd, but it seemed to be the same sort of teleportation power that the Endermen had. He must've learned it through hacking or something. I dunno. Again, I'm no hacker._  
_

While the rest of The Debuggers looked over the edge to see if they had won, Octane appeared behind them without them noticing. I nearly screamed as he dashed at them, slashing left and right. I was horrified at the realism of Ancient Minecraft. There was actual blood flowing from their avatar bodies. They were trying to jump to another platform, but they were losing too much health to get anywhere safely. I jumped in front of Solstice to hide her vision. I did not want her seeing this horrible thing. Octane had gone overboard. He killed them. He freaking _killed _them!

Lyle was dead.

Tyrus was dead.

Contra was dead.

Blackfield and Conner stood and watched as Octane was preparing to kill them. They had lost too much health to stand a good chance. Octane seemed determined to kill them. Then he would kill me.

Then he would kill Solstice.

I began jumping the towers and landed behind him. I began hacking at him, but he just teleported behind me. I was cornered now, failing to save the others. It was hopeless. The Debuggers were finished. I stood between Conner and Blackfield, who were frozen with fear. Octane stood there, ready to taunt us for the final time.

"You guys are pathetic. It makes me sad that I actually worked with you all this time," Octane sounded extremely pissed at us, "I tried to be the leader that you guys needed, but no one accepted what I knew. You brought this upon yourself. It's time we stop messing with this and give up. I'm doing you guys a favor."

**"1 New Email."**

"Ancient Minecraft was lost for a reason. Let that reason remain." Octane approached us more.

**"1 Email From: Anon."**

"Let's bring this chapter to a close." He was about to finish us off.

_Howard,_

_He is there. Goodbye._

_Anon._

When I closed my email screen and looked back at the game, all I saw was Octane on the ground, bleeding. It felt too surreal now. There was no way this was allowed in Minecraft. It could never be allowed. Above him stood the man in gold, carrying his rapier and wearing his phoenix mask. He stared at us as we stood there. Solstice was still watching. She saw the whole thing unfold. That poor girl.

"Why did you kill him?" I asked.

The man in gold turned to look at Solstice, "Killing her first was too simple. I'd want to get the most difficult out of the way first. He was obviously the one to fit that role. Now it is your turn."

"Our turn?" Blackfield stepped forward, probably thinking of actually taking this goddamn thing on, "Why do we have to die?"

"As your dead friend here said, Ancient Minecraft was hidden for a reason. No matter your curiosity, it will stay hidden." The man in gold began attacking Blackfield, who jumped off to another tower.

The golden man turned to me and Conner, who were frightened now.

"I guess you'll do for now." He said.

"Tell me your name first. Who are you?" I asked. Even if I died at this moment, at least I'd know that answer.

The man in gold stood there silently while Blackfield made his way back up. Finally, he spoke.

"Xanadu."

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Blocker11: **I freaking love cats.

**BladeInTheDark: **Yeah, the whole Octane was freaking predictable. I knew he would strike eventually, but didn't know when. That's what scared me about him. He was so freaking mysterious. As for Solstice, I haven't met her... yet. The thing is, I lived in Nebraska at the time of this whole thing (I still do, actually) and she lived (and still does) somewhere on the East Coast. I dunno where Blackfield lives, nor do I really care, but we never had the chance to meet in real life. I say "yet" because we actually made a pact after everything ended. The pact was to stay in contact and, when we all graduated from high school, we'd meet in real life.

And then, to tell you the truth, I have no proof. That is what drives me to absolute freaking insanity. I've never had proof of any of this happening. I've tried to convince people that this has happened, but they only give me stares. That's why I felt a bit depressed when FMP began uploading what happened to the site. It made me feel as if it would only mix with the rest of the stories of magic and nonsense. So, no, I have no proof. You and your friends can continue saying that this is a story and, to be completely freaking honest, I'm fine with that. Just know that, whether or not you believe me, there are others out there who experienced this and will tell you the same goddamn thing: "We were there. We saw it."


	23. Deus Ex Machina

_**Chapter XXIII: Deus Ex Machina**_

Something had begun to go through my mind. I don't really remember what the hell it was, but it felt important. It felt like I made a connection somehow, but stayed freaking oblivious to it all. While I stood in fear, my fate in Ancient Minecraft in the hands of this NPC guy, I wanted to think and try to understand just what the hell was going on. All the fear and grief I had experienced prior to this moment had gone away. In a way, it was only him and I. I know that sounds idiotic, but it's true. Conner was sort of invisible at this point. I could feel the gold man's stare on me. It was only pixelated, but it felt completely real.

I was facing Xanadu in his own domain.

He tried attacking Conner and I, but we thought better than to stand still and jumped to another tower. We looked out to see where Blackfield had gone, but he was out of sight. He must've been concocting some plan to get back at Xanadu. I looked up and saw Solstice running away. She was terrified, but I couldn't blame her. It was hard to believe any of this was happening. It _still_ is.

Conner and I thought it would be logical to stick together in surviving. That way, if one died, then at least the other one would survive. We began hopping towers, going deeper and deeper into the dark abyss, fearing that Xanadu was following us all the way. I could hear Conner's heavy breathing. It was traumatizing. It was like we were actually running away from a serial killer. It was this scary feeling. It felt real. It felt _too_ real. Wherever Blackfield was, though, I wasn't sure. I feared for him as well. He was out in the open along with Solstice. We had to make sure they were safe.

"Go get Solstice to the exit. I'll find Blackfield and support you guys." I ordered. Conner didn't try to change it so that I was in safety with Solstice. He must've known we had something. He must've understood our relationship. He was a damn good man.

Conner began hopping towers, reaching Solstice quickly and guiding her over the abyss to the far exit. We weren't sure if we'd even get through. That didn't matter at the time, though. All that mattered was making sure this Xanadu guy was put down for good. I had to find Blackfield. Luckily, I did. As I was descending into the abyss, which I didn't know how deep it went, I found him hidden behind a trilogy of towers that seemed to have glitched up, providing some protection for him. He was standing on one tower with another tower above him and to his right. I quickly hid with him, hoping that Xanadu hadn't decided to kill Conner and Solstice.

Blackfield was looking all around the damn place, "It's pretty obvious we're facing something extraordinary here."

"Obviously." I noted.

"If he's an NPC, how is he so advanced? The way he speaks and moves seems almost like he was a normal person." Blackfield continued to think.

Before we could decide on an actual plan, we turned and saw Xanadu, his golden armor shining in the darkness, standing there, still. He had his rapier still in hand and he just freaking _stood_ there. We were cornered, but he didn't do anything. He just remained still. I looked back to Blackfield, who didn't dare to move at all. He must've been more terrified than I was. He built The Debuggers from the ground up, so he _had_ a reason to be scared. He didn't want it to fall apart so easily. The reality of it all was becoming, well, too real for him. He was going insane on the inside.

Finally, Xanadu decided to move. He jumped from tower to tower, slowly approaching us. Whenever he reached another tower, though, he'd stop and just continue staring at us. He was really freaking us out. He knew what he was doing. It was absolute psychological torment. It was too much for us to handle. Was this all part of the game? Was this originally going to _be_ Minecraft? Why the hell would Notch want to torment his players? Maybe the man was sicker than I ever thought. Then again, I barely even knew who the hell he was.

"Xanadu, if you kill us, at least tell us what this whole thing means." I said. Blackfield wanted me to stay silent, but to hell with that plan.

"The reason I am going to kill you is so that you don't find out," Xanadu continued approaching us via the towers, "what would be the purpose of telling you? Otherwise I could just let you live."

That was a damn good point. This NPC... it _couldn't_ be an NPC. He was far too intelligent to be a freaking program. Goddamn, the more I listened to how smart and sophisticated he was, the more I realized how twisted our world was. People were _actually _capable of making stuff like this. It was horrible. It was just a game, though. A game that was beginning to terrorize me in ways that shouldn't be possible. My mind was wrapping around the single fact that such a thing was made. You know, just Ancient Minecraft in general.

The real question I began asking myself was why Notch had ended up making such a simplistic, care-free game, but started by making such a psychological brain teaser? He was leading us on. Was he playing with us on purpose? He couldn't be. Was he a good guy or a bad guy? I swear, I _actually_ thought Notch was doing this. The truth is he had no involvement. None whatsoever, so these thoughts were completely stupid like me at the time. However, the sentiment remained. Why were the beginning and end results of Minecraft so freaking different? There had to be a reason.

I wanted to know that reason.

Xanadu jumped to our little trilogy of towers. We foresaw this and began running like hell. We dropped off the towers and onto the ones directly below. We were looking around for a possible escape route, but there was really none now. We had just dropped to the deepest the entire goddamn abyss would go. There were no more towers below us. Just darkness. There was no real way of getting out of this alive.

Blackfield turned to me after finally giving up, "I'll distract him. Be sure to kill him, though."

"What?" I reacted. This wasn't like him.

"You've done more for this team so far than most would have and I thank you for that. I don't want to suffer from this anymore, though. It's about time my legacy in Ancient Minecraft ended," He said with complete seriousness, "kill Xanadu and learn the truth for yourself."

This wasn't how this was supposed to end.

We prepared to finish Xanadu off. I stood on the inside of the tower, against the wall. Blackfield positioned himself on the ledge. He was going to surprise Xanadu and lure him over there. Then I would push them both off the ledge. Sacrifice seemed to be the only way this would end. It was absolutely freaking horrifying. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Just before Xanadu jumped down, though, I got another email.

**"1 Email from: Anon."**

Damn it, Anon. Leave me alone.

_Wes,_

_The future LaCKs SubStance. IT is MERELY a CLONE._

_FOLLOW THE FUTURE AND THE FUTURE SHALL FOLLOW YOU._

_Anon._

What was Anon going on about now?

We stood there while Xanadu looked at us both. He had already figured out what we were about to do. This wasn't supposed to happen.

"There is no escape." Xanadu said.

The thing that I began to notice about this very freaking tense situation was that Xanadu had his focus on Blackfield. It was strange. It was almost as if I wasn't even there. Hell, he basically walked right up to Blackfield. He completely forgot about me. Blackfield escaped, apparently deciding not to go through with the faulty plan, and ran over to me. Xanadu followed and I felt like I was just brought into the middle of the most powerful storm of all time. There was fear killing me on the inside, if that makes sense. I was basically really freaking scared.

Blackfield was pretty much running around like a lunatic at this point while I wasn't sure what was going on anymore. Xanadu seemed like he only wanted Blackfield now. He didn't care for Solstice, Conner, or I. Just freaking Blackfield. That made no sense. Or did it? I couldn't really think straight anymore. I was more confused than terrified at this point.

Eventually it seemed like it was all over. Xanadu had cornered Blackfield and I wasn't really paying attention. I was just thinking. You know, about the correlation between the server "Xanadu" and the NPC Xanadu, which I wasn't sure was an NPC after all. I had heard the name Xanadu before. I think I remember Garth or Ed using it in school. Apparently they had learned about it in class. It meant something like "light or glory" or something like that. How did Xanadu have anything to do with that?

Then again, he _was_ wearing a goddamn golden suit of armor with a freaking phoenix mask. He even had a goddamn rapier. None of this was supposed to be in Minecraft. I mean, The Logic System was pretty grand and glorious. Were these things supposed to represent something? Goddamn, this made no freaking sense. I'm sorry for the cursing, but I was just freaking pissed.

"Howie, kill him!" Blackfield shouted to me.

I stood still, "No."

"Howie, what are you doing?"

Xanadu was beginning to deplete Blackfield's health quickly. What was I supposed to do at this point?

"Howie!" Blackfield was getting really freaking pissed. He was watching as everything he hoped to discover was slipping away. He would never see the end of Ancient Minecraft. Then again, he was the one who offered to sacrifice himself so I could continue on. He really wasn't sure what he wanted anymore. I wondered how he would survive in the real world.

No emails. Anon had ditched me, I guess.

What did he say again? Something about following the future. What the hell did the future have anything to do with this? Goddamn, Notch really made this difficult to crack. If I ever meet him, I'm not sure if I'd hit him or congratulate him on making the biggest puzzle ever.

"Howie!" Blackfield was nearly dead.

**"1 Email From: Anon."**

****I opened it while Blackfield prepared to die.

_Deus Ex Machina._

_-Anon_

__What?

I looked back at my screen and saw that something had drastically changed. In the abyss, I could see a faint light. That wasn't really the drastic change, though. The change was that there was something on the screen.

"Activate".

Activate? Activate what?

I began remembering back when I first encountered Xanadu. The goddamn thing was about to kill Solstice. Then this "Activate" thing freaking appeared on screen and I somehow got back at him. Again, how he got back, I wasn't sure. This time I was positive, though. I was sure I would save him.

I pressed X to activate.

A loud roar erupted in game, nearly destroying my speakers. It was late at night and I was swearing because I thought that I would wake my goddamn parents. The light in the abyss turned out to be goddamn lava. It rose up until it nearly engulfed the data tower that we were standing on. I couldn't believe it anymore. Was Anon behind this? Was he actually trying to help me? That didn't matter yet. What mattered was that I had a sudden chance. Xanadu had turned around to see what the hell just happened.

I began attacking.

Lava was flying everywhere. Blackfield got the hell out while he still could. I could see Xanadu just stand there, completely still, while lava flowed over him. He was losing a lot of health really fast. I felt like a god now. It felt great. Whoever Anon was... I wanted to thank him so badly. The lava was flying everywhere while the deafening roar from before quieted down. Finally, when the roar was gone, the lava had receded back into the depths of the freaking abyss. Xanadu was on the ground, dead.

Well, sort of. He was supposed to be dead. When people died, they disappeared. That's what happened to Gage. The same happened to Lyle, Contra, and Tyrus, sadly. Why wasn't he dying.

Blackfield and I were incredibly cautious and really freaking nervous. For a second we actually thought he couldn't die. It seemed likely. The life of immortality is pretty damn glorious, if I do say so myself. That wasn't the case, though. He was completely still. He didn't move.

"Come on." Blackfield walked on over to the fallen Xanadu.

There was nothing. He looked dead, but his body remained.

Actually, there was something.

It was another command that said "Press X to Activate".

It must've been only on my screen since Blackfield didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned it. It was up to me to see what the hell it did. It could either kill us, help us, or do nothing. I was scared of all three options.

But I pressed X because I knew I would have to.

My hands were out of my control. I watched on screen as they reached down to Xanadu and grabbed a hold of his phoenix mask.

What was going on?

The mask was slowly removed and Blackfield and I became absolutely horrified by who was underneath.

It was Blackfield himself.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Guest (CreepersDebuggingMinecraft): **I don't quite understand. Why did you feel stupid?

**BlessedMC: **Yeah, hamburgers in water makes more sense, I guess. Again, I wasn't really sure what the hell I was saying anymore. Speaking of which, though, I should get a haircut. I hate haircuts, though. Well, I don't hate them. I hate getting them. I hate _talking_ to barbers. That's it. Okay, enough of that.

**WildSmilingPasta: **Damn, that was interesting. I'm not entirely sure what that was about, though. I'm really interested in why you included Blackfield in it, sort of. A reference to him, at least.

**Blocker11: **To be honest, I've never seen a purple cat. And I _would _have Xanadu getting pushed over by cats, but that didn't actually happen and I'm trying to put out what really happened. Also, cats weren't included in Ancient Minecraft.

**peet341: **Thank you for believing in my story. I'm glad that people see that this was a terrible time for me. As for Solstice, I answered a question similar to this in the previous chapter. We plan on meeting up again after high school, but we never became more than friends. We were, and always will be, just friends.


	24. The Horrors of Discovery

_**Chapter XXIV: The Horrors of Discovery**_

What had we just witnessed?

The mask was off and we both stood over what seemed to be a clone of Blackfield. The body was slowly disappearing, though. Like, the gold armor was disappearing. The head remained, though. The head of Blackfield. I looked up at the real Blackfield, who was completely shocked, I was guessing. He didn't move. I thought I heard him sniffle a bit, like he was about to cry. This was absurd, though. Considering all that we had been through so far, this was one of the freakiest things to happen. Something was definitely up.

"Howie, is everything alright down there?" Conner shouted from above. Luckily, him and Solstice were safe.

I wasn't sure what to say. Sure, we were alive, but now extremely lost and confused. Blackfield just remained still. I watched as Conner took a crap ton of blocks he had left, I think they were stone, and placed them carefully so that we could get off that tower. I walked up and turned back to see Blackfield continue standing there with Xanadu finally disappearing for good. He finally decided to freaking follow. We made our way past the towers and to the platform on the far side. At this point I was really worried. I couldn't predict what we'd come across next.

We stopped at the door. Blackfield, despite being utterly lost in thought, proceeded to start hacking it while the rest of us (Conner, Solstice, and I) looked out over The Logic System. The possibilities of what it meant were endless. I just felt freaking stupid for not understand one goddamn bit of it. Conner seemed in the know on it. I expected him to bring up something obvious. Instead, he raised a very freaking good point.

"The scary thing about that whole fight," I began while Blackfield continued on hacking, "was that it seemed like he'd never freaking die. He just kept coming at us. Even when we killed him he stayed there. It was like he was immortal."

Conner nodded, sort of, and cleared his throat, "Immortality, huh?"

Was he onto something?

"Haven't you noticed something?" He asked me.

I shook my head. I had been drawing blanks since day one. At this point I'd beg for some answers.

"Death has been a vital part of Ancient Minecraft, it seems. The duplication program that Blackfield found," Conner was really thinking hard about this one, "it would bring people back. Sort of like how it seemed to bring Xanadu back. You guys said you killed him before, right?"

"Yeah."

"If you killed him and he came back, he technically has an infinite number of deaths, but none of them will keep him down," Conner sounded a bit creeped out by the whole thing, "as if he had an infinite number of variable in his programming that kept him coming back."

Was that the purpose of The Logic System? Was this whole goddamn room just a freaking part of the programming? That made a lot of sense, actually, but I wasn't too sure. Were we even in Minecraft anymore? I wasn't sure whether or not that was even possible. If The Logic System kept Xanadu coming back, then he must've been guarding something. Something magnificent. Something _glorious_. But what?

"Got it." Blackfield said as the door flew open.

The four of us were about to go through the door, but I stopped and looked back across The Logic System to see Ashland still laying there, her legs too crippled for her to move. She was lifeless. It was horrible. Had they just left her there? I didn't want this. I could've freaking defended myself. Now there were only four Debuggers left. What could possibly come out of this was awful to think about. We were heading deeper and deeper into insanity at this point.

After realizing there was nothing I could do for her, I followed the others through the door. We were in another dark hallway. We continued following it down, hearing the sound of freaking metal underneath us. This was too strange. Goddamn _metal_ in Minecraft? So many things didn't make sense. A lot of these things seemed like they would be included in the final game. Why had Notch taken them out?

The hallway came to an end shortly after. We were in this sort of square room. It was pretty big, too. It was all metal. There was no real light. Like, there weren't any torches. There was a strange light coming off the metal, though. Where it came from, I still don't know. It was just there. Most importantly, there was a cross in the middle of the room. It looked like the same exact cross we found in Forbidden. Well, not the same exact, but it was made in the same way. You know, same material and stuff.

All of us just stood around it, stroking it's material and stuff. We were definitely onto something. If we found a connection between Forbidden and Xanadu, then we were definitely onto something. What these crosses meant, though... I had no freaking clue. I knew they were the symbol of Christ and Christianity or something, but that was really it. I was never big on religion, but that's all I really knew. Then again, we did scale freaking God Mountain. Wait, we named it that. Never mind.

Like the other cross, there was a hole in this one as well. I was a bit hesitant to put my hand into it like last time. I didn't wanna be plunged further into this hell hole. I wanted to leave Xanadu already. Since we were nearly done, though, I felt it necessary to continue on. Whatever would be hidden at the end of this damn server would be the key to understand what the hell Notch was trying to do. There were many things left, but my theory at the time was that Notch had experienced death in some form and put his thoughts on it into this whole thing. It made sense to me, but a lot of the details had to be filled in before I could make a solid conclusion.

Blackfield and Solstice looked at me, though. They knew what had to be done. They wanted me to do it.

So I did. I stuck my hand into the cross.

My screen went instantly black.

I think theirs did as well, but it literally just cut to black. I could hear a faint sound through my speakers. It sounded like static on the TV, but not as annoying. There was nothing else on my screen. My computer hadn't died either. There was still a bit of light. I couldn't even freaking leave the goddamn game. I was terrified. Anything could pop up on my screen. I actually backed away, turned down my speakers a bit, and prepared to see a freaking ghost or zombie pop up to scare me.

Instead, I saw a clip from what looked like a home movie.

It was dated 2004-3-14, or March 14th, 2004. In the clip, there was a young boy. He was looking to be a toddler, maybe about four years old. He had no shirt on and had fluffy yellow hair. He was just staring at the camera while playing with his toy cars. He stopped and began throwing his cars at the camera. Whoever was holding the camera moved out of the way, "Nej, Johan! Kasta inte bilar!"

I had no idea what that language was. I kept watching, though, despite not understanding what was going on.

The little boy stood up grumpily and began running around. He was wearing green sweatpants. There was a TV in the background with some news channel on it. While the camera kept running, the front door beside the TV opened and a tall man with a gray mustache and a black suit walked in happily, "Johan, min son! Var är du?"

The little boy stopped running and stared at the man. He then ran and hugged the man. The person holding the camera, who I assumed was his mother, walked over to the man and kissed him. The little boy took the camera and began playing around with it, pressing random buttons and giving it odd effects.

"Johan, satte kameran ner!" The mother shouted.

The boy smiled, "Hej!"

The screen cut to black. I sat there in silence, shaken by what I had seen. Something else popped up on my screen a few minutes later.

_Disconnected._

* * *

__**Howard Answers:**

**Jack Cross: **Let me just say that that name is _badass_. Also, my name is Howard, not Harold, but it's not the first time someone's made that mistake. I'm glad you also understand what has happened to me. Friends are a good thing to have, though. No one ever wants to lose friends. Ever.

**generaltemujin: **You're actually on the right track, sort of. Nice thinking.

**Blocker11: **Yeah, sorry about the cats. But I've stated in previous chapters, that these events happened about a year ago. In fact, we explored Xanadu around the end of February. And I might have a screenshot somewhere deep on my computer, but I feel like they've all been lost. I've gotten a new computer since everything occurred and a lot of the files that were left over from Ancient Minecraft were deleted. Since people are beginning to become suspicious, I'll try looking. I can't make any promises, though.


	25. Y

**FlyingMidgetProductions: For those reading this and are considering reviewing, Howard has left a message at the bottom of this chapter in regard to the content of your reviews.**

* * *

_**Chapter XXV: Y**_

To say the least, we had discovered what we wanted. We got _some_ answers, but at the cost of quite a few friends. I tried going back on the goddamn server, but it was gone. You know, _deleted_. Just like Forbidden. That only meant there might be more to come. This wasn't the end. This was _far_ from the end. Our objective was pointless by now. There was no real reason to continue. After seeing the home video of the little boy, I felt sick - sick and scared. I wasn't sure why, but I did. It sure as hell wasn't nostalgia. It was a sickening feeling. I never understood it.

The morning after Xanadu was completed, I didn't act normal in the slightest. I went downstairs, ate, and went back to hide under my covers. My parents were out shopping, so they didn't see how paranoid I was. They didn't see how _confused_ I was. Even if they did, they wouldn't understand. All I could do was wait for this feeling to subside, just like all my other feelings. I never act upon feelings. I only wait for them to go away. Maybe that's why I'm messed up.

To be honest, I wasn't sure whether Xanadu was real or not. The whole thing seemed incredibly fake and dream-like. In all honesty, it _could've_ been fake. I was typing out the events of Xanadu and began wondering to myself, _Did this really happen?_ It led me back to the nightmarish state that I was in the wake of the disaster. The disaster that left only four Debuggers left and a brand new mystery to try and figure out. Even though they weren't _actually_ dead, it felt like. It felt like I had just watched five people get massacred.

Why the hell me, though?

Why did I have to end up like this?

It's a question I still ask myself today.

To try and ease my trouble freaking mind I hit up Garth and Ed and decided to head up to the mall. We had nowhere else to go, and it made me feel at home, so it seemed ideal. We went there and we just hung out. We played games, we ate, we talked, we felt normal. Well, _I_ did, at least. They always felt normal. The scary yet happy thing about this was that I felt the most normal since before my journey into Ancient Minecraft began. Every now and then, after completing missions with The Debuggers, I'd hang out with Ed and Garth, but I'd feel scared. This time, though, I felt nothing but happiness. It was freaking amazing.

While we were walking around, I decided to go to the bathroom. We were going to see a movie or something. I forget which one. That didn't matter, though. What mattered was what happened when I went into the bathroom. I had finished washing my hands and I was about to exit when I got a phone call. I took out my phone and looked to see who was calling me.

**"Calling: Conner"**

This would be the first time I contacted him since what happened in Xanadu. This would be the first time I contacted _any_ of the Debuggers since what happened. What would he say? I couldn't dare ignore him, but I was freaking scared. I answered since no one else was in the bathroom at the moment.

"Hi." I said.

"Are you okay?" Conner asked me. What a guy.

"Yeah."

"Listen, Blackfield said he wanted to hold a meeting tonight about what happened."

Are you freaking kidding me? We were all probably traumatized for life after what happened. Why the _hell_ would Blackfield think of it as a good idea to bring us immediately back into this? I couldn't accept. This was nonsense. Blackfield was out of his mind. We needed rest, not work. We needed to get back on track. I _had_ to decline.

"What time?" I asked.

"Six. He says he plans to uncover what might have happened with him being Xanadu and all. He says he already has a pretty good idea." Conner said and hung up. That was it. He said nothing else. He sounded dead. He sounded emotionally deprived. I honestly wasn't sure what part of the previous night caused all of these feelings to erupt. I mean, was it the death? Was it Blackfield being behind Xanadu's mask all along? Was it the freaking home movie? Everything seemed too eerie to handle. Yet, at the same time, I felt like all the answers were there. We just had to figure it out. That was the hard part, though.

The three of us went to the movies. It wasn't like a modern movie theater. It was one of those smaller ones that showed popular movies from long ago. Except this movie wasn't from long ago. It was only 1998. The movie was called _Pi_. It was about this dude and his odd obsession with numbers. I dunno if any of you have seen it, but it was creepy. I wasn't necessarily scared, since it was just a thriller, but I had an odd feeling from it. Everything felt strange. The whole thing was thought provoking, though. Maybe not to everyone, but to me.

Throughout most of the movie, I couldn't stop thinking. I was just thinking about it all. Xanadu; The Logic System; those crosses that are appearing everywhere now; and that home movie. That _goddamn_ home movie. What the hell was the point of it? Had Notch planned to include that in the game? Why? It was freaky. It was odd, really. Who would do that? Was it his?

...

Did that home video belong to Notch?

There just went another theory. I saved up all my thoughts and went to the goddamn meeting that night. I planned to bring all thoughts to a close and perhaps finally reach some conclusion on the meaning of Ancient Minecraft. When I logged on, the columns around the pedestal were gone. It was incredibly dark in The Place, but I could barely see the other three in the corner. Blackfield, Solstice, and Conner were all standing in front of the tunnel, maybe crafting or something.

"What's going on? Where'd all the lights go?"

"We're finished," Blackfield said, "The Debuggers are done."

That was a surprise. I hadn't expected the man who formed it to close it down himself. That took guts.

"We're not a team anymore. We're only four teenagers who think that we can honestly make it to the end of this psychology test. What made The Debuggers what it was isn't there anymore. It's only us." He said disappointingly. I felt horrible for him. He sounded depressed. I couldn't blame him in the slightest, though. He had every single goddamn reason to be.

We just kinda stood around, waiting for a thought to arise. Conner said that Blackfield would be theorizing tonight, but there wasn't much to theorize about. We were stuck in a rut. He probably only called this meeting because he felt he had to avenge everyone who died. He felt responsible for seeing that the end of Ancient Minecraft came to light.

"What if more people join? There are four more Forbidden Machines left. What if somebody actually builds them?" I asked.

"Not likely in the slightest. The three machines left are left for a reason. They're the most complicated of all fourteen of them." Blackfield seemed to have extensive knowledge on this. Then again, he coined the goddamn term, I think.

"What was your Forbidden Machine, Blackfield?" Conner asked.

Blackfield began walking around aimlessly, "It was a cannon called Blitzkrieg. It was incredibly powerful. It had the power to disintegrate mountains instantly. I was horrified when I built it. That's all in the past, though."

"Sounds like you had the strongest." Solstice said.

"It was not. The strongest has yet to be built."

We all turned to him. A machine more powerful than a goddamn cannon that could destroy entire mountains?

"It was a machine that, when powered, could wipe out all life on a single server."

Are you freaking serious?

"It is simply called," Blackfield stopped walking around, "Y."

* * *

**Howard: Guys, I appreciate your support despite many of you disbelieving me. I don't blame you, I really freaking don't. The thing is that I gave FMP this story to upload so my story could get out. I enjoy connecting with you, but I feel that many of the reviews have become consistent questions. Rather this, review with your thoughts on the story rather than trying to talk to me. If you feel you really _have_ to talk to me, you can message FMP, but I can't keep responding to the same people. Once this is completed, I'll be gone, though. I'll be awaiting that day.**

**Howard Answers:**

**BlessedMC: **You know, I thought the same thing. You were thinking XANA, weren't you? I was a decent fan of _Code Lyoko_ back in the day.

**Jack Cross: **No apologies necessary, a common mistake. I was referring to your name, but Nathanial Mountain sounds badass too.

**BladeInTheDark: **I'm currently a senior. I was a junior when this occurred. If The Debuggers had never come along then I would be playing a much simpler form of Ancient Minecraft. The trauma really began when Solstice began interfering with my world. And I don't eat pie, though I used to enjoy cherry.

**WildSmilingPasta: **That's a very interesting story, but the review section isn't a good place for it, dude. Upload it to the site or something. I'll have FMP drop a review, I guess.

**Guest: **Wat.

**Guest (CreepersDebuggingMinecraft): **Oh, I see. I was very confused on what you were trying to say. Since I don't play Minecraft anymore, I might not be able to go on the server, but I'll see.

**manaphymajic1999: **God_damn_ you are so close.

**Blocker11: **Xanadu wasn't there just to mess with us. He had a vital role. You'll have to wait a little later on until that becomes evident.


	26. Forbidden Futures

_**Chapter XXVI: Forbidden Futures**_

In all honesty, I never bothered to look into the Forbidden Machines much. They seemed just sort of there. Like stupid little things that served no purpose but to bring people into this atrocity of a game. Well, not Minecraft, just Ancient Minecraft, you know. Ever since The Pig Paladin (was it Pork Paladin? I don't care anymore) I've never bothered to try and figure out their origins. It's a strange thing, really. I knew already that Solstice created The Garden of Rowan and that Conner made Aquatic Oblivion. What the hell were the others? For the first time since the beginning, I was curious as to just what the hell they were.

We all piled into the tunnel and began digging. It was a strange thing, really. We all wanted out of this, but knew that it wasn't that easy. We'd have to fight our goddamn way out. Whatever light was at the end of this nightmarish tunnel didn't matter as long as we eventually found it. All four of us lined up along the wall, holding our shovels, and began digging. While we dug, I guess Blackfield got the urge to try and explain more to us. All three of us (Solstice, Conner, and I) were completely oblivious on what the Forbidden Machines really were. I guess Solstice knew some, but she didn't know a lot. I think only Blackfield had enough knowledge of the stuff to really freaking understand and explain.

"So, I guess I'll begin with telling you the different Forbidden Machines that have been discovered," Blackfield said, taking the far right of the wall beside Conner, "I already said how I had built Blitzkrieg. Solstice had built a fortress called The Garden of Rowan that had been of use to us on multiple occasions in Forbidden. You understand how Conner built Aquatic Oblivion. Octane had built an interesting maze of railroad tracks called Night Owl that would help him sneak around in the night. Contra built an interesting wall of glowstone called Balderdash that caused deceit to those facing it. Tyrus built Angel's Gate that could bring only one person back from the dead. Ashland built Genesis which forced mobs away in fear. Gage built Ultimate Arm which protected him from all attacks around him. Lyle built built Hurricane Valley which did about the same thing as Ultimate Arm. That only leaves the three that have not been built yet."

This was more complicated than I freaking hoped for. I mean, _seriously_. Why had Notch gone out of his way to make such a convoluted system? It seemed pointless. Then again, we were going through this to try and find this goddamn "point" or reason. Once we found it, all would make sense. At least I hoped.

Conner stopped digging, "I only count thirteen then."

He was right. All that Blackfield mentioned was only adding up to thirteen when he said there were fourteen. What was missing?

"I guess I forgot about old Hospice." Blackfield chuckled.

Right, Hospice. The dude that was apparently a legend. He could supposedly control Endermen. Conner and I didn't know him, but he seemed dear to Solstice and Blackfield. I really wish I could've met him, though. He probably could've been a major contributor to this little mess we made. Too bad he had to die. How he died, though, remained a mystery.

"Hospice built... well, he built this magnificent tower," Blackfield continued digging while reminiscing, "it was made of bedrock."

I stopped digging. What had he just said?

"It was designed for water and all that."

"The Waterfall Tower?"

Blackfield looked at me, "Excuse me?"

"Hospice built The Waterfall Tower as a Forbidden Machine?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" Blackfield stopped digging. We all did, actually. We were freaking bored. Not much to do until we could get to the next server.

"That goddamn thing made me flood the freaking Nether," I looked over at Solstice, who wasn't paying attention, "and led me to her. I don't know if I should be angry or not."

"Yeah, Hospice built The Waterfall Tower. The remaining three Forbidden Machines were Y, the strongest of them all; The Carnivore, which turned dead mobs into food; and Aurum, which would turn all stone and dirt underneath it to gold for you to mine." Blackfield explained. He seemed to know a lot about this. _Too_ much, really. How did he know all of this?

"Could I ask you a question, Blackfield?" I began while Conner and Solstice just wandered around, "The Forbidden Machines were discovered upon being built, right? Then how the hell do you know so much about the ones that haven't been built yet?"

He waited a few seconds, "The Forbidden Machines weren't discovered that way... they were discovered through the files in Forbidden that I hacked into upon first reaching there. It was Tyrus and I that began to look further into it and all. We learned from the get-go that there were fourteen that needed to be found."

"And they were in the programming?" I asked.

"Yeah."

Since they must've been bored out of their freaking minds, Solstice and Conner returned to digging.

"Were they meant for something besides bringing us into Ancient Minecraft?" I asked. It was a damn good question. If they were in the programming of Forbidden, then they had to serve some goddamn purpose. They couldn't just be there for no reason. I felt like I was onto something. There were fourteen.

Blackfield called Solstice and Conner over to where we were before they could even begin freaking digging. We all were around the pedestal. I guess it was time we actually began discussing things. It would be necessary, after all, if we wanted to get through this thing. Was it something that I said that triggered Blackfield's thought process? I dunno. He just sorta began talking is all.

"It's time we come up with a master plan," Blackfield said with a bit more confidence, "Howie here stated that there is some probable reason for the existence of the fourteen Forbidden Machines. It's time we begin connecting everything we've come across to figure out just what the hell is going on here. No more death. No more mind games. It's time we face the future of this damn game."

Damn, Blackfield rarely cursed. He sounded passionate, though. Like, _really_ passionate. It was freaking cool.

We basically began sort of laying out what we had discovered up to this point:

**1. The servers "Forbidden" and "Xanadu" were connected somehow.**

**2. The Logic System represented infinity or immortality in that it has an infinite number of variables or something.**

**3. Xanadu was really Blackfield (sorta).**

**4. There were crosses at the end of both servers.**

**5. The goddamn home movie of the little boy in the language I didn't understand.**

**6. The fourteen Forbidden Machines.**

**7. The seven deadly sins in Xanadu.**

**8. Xanadu meant "glorious" or something like that.**

We were stuck. We were stuck in a goddamn rut. There was no way out now. We had to think hard.

Blackfield was freaking right.

It was time we face the future.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**BladeInTheDark: **It's great to see that I've been leaving some sort of impact on you guys. Otherwise I'd think this was for nothing. I didn't really turn him down, I just said that the likelyhood of me visiting was, well, unlikely.

**BlessedMC: **Yeah, no problem, I guess. The daily updates come because I'm pretty good with memory and stuff. I can write down my thoughts in a pretty decent format. FMP would look over it to make sure there would be no mistakes. If you do find any, be sure to point your goddamn finger at him!


	27. Fear of the Unknown

_**Chapter XXVII: Fear of the Unknown**_

That entire meeting we did almost absolutely nothing. We had nothing to really work off of. We understood, for the most part, what had to be discovered, but how we were supposed to go about discovering it was the issue. Eventually it came down to us throwing ideas at each other until one sounded like it would make sense. It was completely stupid. We were running out of ideas.

After an hour of this we called it quits and signed off, planning to meet up at The Place on Wednesday, as usual, unless Blackfield would decide to bring us in earlier. I hoped he wouldn't do that. I really freaking did. It was enough that my nerves were all over the place. Now I had to deal with putting aside real life events to cater to him. Hell, we all wanted what he wanted. He wanted to see the end of Ancient Minecraft _and_ return to a normal lifestyle. We all did.

Over that weekend I was called by Conner. He was freaking paranoid suddenly. He looked like he just witnessed a freaking murder. Well, not when he called. We chatted on the phone and I invited him over. When he showed up, he looked paranoid. We were up in my room, trying to decide what to do since Garth and Ed were, well, out of the picture, to say the least. Our stupid little minds kept drifting back to goddamn Minecraft, though. Everything we went through... we weren't sure what to make of it.

"Howie," Conner said all gloomy and stuff, "I don't know if I can handle this. I might have to leave."

"Leave?"

"This is getting to be too much to handle. I don't know if I can do it." He sounded pathetic. He was going through the same thing I had. Poor guy.

"That's bullshit," I said, startling him, "if I can handle it then you can."

I dunno if he took that as a compliment or not. I didn't think of myself as that great of a person, really. I knew plenty of people who hated me. They had every single goddamn reason to, really. A lot of my qualities were what separated me from the "in crowd". It made me mad. I wanted to be in that crowd. I didn't wanna be a freaking outcast. Instead, though, I was shoved aside. Looking back now, I deserved every bit of that. I didn't deserve the goddamn "in crowd". Now I don't even know _why_ I wanted to be there in the first place.

Conner ended up just heading home. We had nothing to do. He was also scared because I guess I was "pressuring" him into staying. Was I, though? I didn't really understand. Was I really becoming what all the other Debuggers became? They were all commissioned or something to bring in new members. Was I just as bad as them? That was a horrible thought. Despite me knowing how bad of a person I really am, I don't _want_ to be a bad person. I wanna be normal. I wanna be friendly. I wanna be freaking sane.

And you know what a goddamn insane person does?

They go back to what drove them over the edge in the first place.

I shut my goddamn blinds and turned on my computer. I was sitting there, agitated. Perhaps there was some new information that had just come out regarding our next mission. Inside, I was both terrified and excited. I dunno why. I always got this agitated feeling whenever something like this happened. I didn't know whether to feel scared or excited. Anyway, that's what I was feeling while the computer booted up. When it did I went straight to my emails to see if there was anything.

**"1 New Email."**

****Hell yeah. What is it now? Did we find a new server?

**"1 Email From: Anon."**

****What? He's back? What does he want now?

_Wes,_

_I know you ignore me. I know you don't want me. Just understand this:_

_That doesn't freaking matter._

_Anon._

__Well, that didn't make sense. Did it? Was he mad at me for ignoring him? I had every freaking reason to. I didn't know who the hell he was or what he wanted with me. Sometimes I actually thought he was freaking Xanadu, but since that was in the past, there had to be another explanation. He was mad at me and still communicating me. A decent idea popped into my stupid little head.

I hit the "Reply" button and began composing:

_Anon,_

_Shut your trap. Leave me alone._

_Sincerely,_

_Howie_

__There! That oughta show him! I hit "Send" and browsed the web, waiting patiently for him to reply, which literally came a minute or so later. He must've gotten it instantly or something. No one received emails _that_ fast, did they? Shit, if they _were_, why wasn't I? Did my computer suck that much? Nonetheless, I returned to my email to see what the hell he had sent:

_Wes,_

_That sounds like you._

_Anon._

__This dude was creeping me out now. He knew me from somewhere. He must've seen me in Ancient Minecraft or something. I dunno, it seemed possible. I had to deal with this alone, though. This didn't involve Solstice or Conner or freaking Blackfield for that matter. Only me and I planned to get rid of this freak once and for all. For one thing, he knew me somehow, considering he keeps freaking calling me "Wes". Second of all, he usually emailed me when I was in trouble or something. Was he on my side or not? I opened a reply and began:

_Anon,_

_What do you want with me? How do you know me?_

_Howie._

__A minute later, he replied:

_Wes,_

_Look inside yourself and find that answer. Do you remember what I told you already?_

_DON'T FEAR THE FUTURE._

_Anon._

__Yeah, yeah, I freaking remember. Those goddamn words stuck with me, honestly. Whatever they meant, they must've been important or something. I thought a bit more about what he said. "Look inside yourself and find that answer". Yeah, whatever. I don't take that crap seriously. I usually just thought and everything came to me. Was that looking inside myself, though? Just thinking? Was that it?

So he just wanted me to think. That made sense, actually. I was so stupid for thinking he meant something else. Anyway, I did think. I thought for a while before giving up and replying:

_Anon,_

_If you don't tell me who the hell you are, I'll stop replying._

_Howie._

__A minute or so later:

_Wes,_

_That's what you did before, you stupid freaking idiot._

_Anon._

__Interesting, since he made a point.

_Anon,_

_Well, I'll do it again._

_Howie._

__This time he didn't reply until ten minutes later. He must've actually put some thought into it:

_Wes,_

_Do you see the light at the end of the tunnel?_

_Anon._

__Light at the end of the tunnel?

Wasn't that, like, what people said when they had a near death experience or something? Interesting, though, since that sort of correlated with what we had been experiencing. Death and beyond seemed to be hidden behind some sort of symbol in Ancient Minecraft. Was Anon trying to tell me something? Goddamn it, if he was, I needed to get it out of him!

_Anon,_

_No. What do you mean?_

_Howie._

__A minute later, he sent this email with an image attached:

_Wes,_

_Find it and reach it. Then you will see the outside._

_Anon._

__Light at the end of the tunnel? The outside?

Was he talking about The Place? We needed to finish the tunnel? What?

That wasn't the major concern at that moment, though. The major concern was the image attached.

When I opened it up, it was a small boy, a toddler. Not the blond toddler from the home movie. It was a boy with interesting characteristics, if I do say so myself. He had brown hair, blue eyes, and was wearing dinosaur pajamas. Very generic dinosaur pajamas, too. I wasn't focused on the goddamn pajamas, though. I had a freaking revelation while staring at the image. I stood up and stared at the wall, shaking.

"That's," I said to myself, "that's me."

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Blocker11: **I guess you'll have to see for yourself.

**Alex: **Thanks, I guess.

**Avaister: **Let me remind you that you only obtained your powers from Ancient Minecraft after the Forbidden Machine was completed. If he was building The Waterfall Tower, his Forbidden Machine, he couldn't have had the power to control Endermen anyway. This means that he probably used a mod or something that allowed him to use bedrock as a general building block.


	28. Light At the End of the Tunnel

**_Chapter XXVIII: Light At the End of the Tunnel_**

Tell me this: if you were talking to someone you didn't know who had a picture of you as a child, how would you freaking react? Would you respond by simply asking "How the hell did you get that?" or "What do you want with me?" or something? I had no idea how to react. I was sitting down, standing up, sitting down again, walking around the goddamn house, lying down, and sitting in my chair again. This was creepier than the goddamn home movie. This creepy dude had a picture of me. This was the same dude who was trying to help me. I felt scared. Was this guy trying to get to know me? Was he a pedophile or something?

No, I didn't think that. I knew how to respond. I stopped shaking and replied:

_You're me?_

What else was I supposed to freaking say? I didn't even make it formally. I just freaking opened the stupid "Reply" box and typed up the things that were on my mind. To be honest, I didn't initially expect something so, well, _contrived_. If you were being emailed by someone random, you wouldn't think of them as being you, you'd think of them as a troll or something. Hell, the real question was _how_ he was me. First I needed to wait for him to respond before getting down to the business of figuring out what the hell was going on.

A few minutes later he answered:

_Wes,_

_More so, you are me._

_Anon._

And _this_ made everything worse. So Anon was really me? Well, how did that freaking work? I was sitting there, putting together things that made no sense beforehand. He said he was me and kept telling me to not fear the future. It was a freaking stupid thought, but it was the one that stuck with me the most.

Was Anon me from the future?

No, there is no _freaking_ way. There was no goddamn way that this was actually happening. I shut down my computer and tried to get my mind off the whole thing. I mean, _seriously_, if you were emailed by someone claiming to be you from the future, would you freaking believe them? No, you wouldn't. You'd think it was a troll or something. Goddamn, I was freaking out now. Really, Anon was either me or a troll who had access to my privacy. Both of these were messed up and needed to be stopped, if that makes sense. I waited until later that night to turn my computer back on.

When I opened my email back up, he had replied four times. Each email contained only one word:

_Wes,_

_Xanadu._

_Anon._

The second one:

_Wes,_

_Grief._

_Anon._

The third one:

_Wes,_

_Rapture._

_Anon._

The fourth one:

_Wes,_

_Aeon._

_Anon._

That was it.

_Now_ what was I supposed to reply with? He, or I, was being cryptic at this point. Not really helping the situation or anything. These names didn't matter to me anymore. They were just names, that's all. What mattered to me was understanding the situation. I wanted to figure out how the hell Anon was supposedly me because that made no sense whatsoever. I continued to think, taking up most of my night, before opening up the first email he had sent me. The email only contained the word "Xanadu" and nothing else.

I already knew Xanadu either referred to the person (NPC? I dunno anymore) or server. If that were true, then the other names had to have some sort of correlation. That makes sense, right? So Grief, Rapture, and Aeon were either the next servers or, possibly, NPCs like Xanadu? Goddamn it, why couldn't it just end? If it were people then I'd go insane. Xanadu left me with some emotional scars. Having to watch all of that go down was chaotic. I didn't want this anymore. Nonetheless, the information I gathered seem important. I would need to tell Blackfield about it at the meeting. Until then, though, I had more freaking time to waste doing nothing but trying to reconcile the friendships that I let fall apart. Stupid, stupid me.

On Tuesday I walked home with Conner. He said he was feeling better after what happened and cared more for how I was handling the situation. He was nice for looking into me like that. Well, not _literally_ into me, but I guess you already figured that. He didn't seem like that developed of a guy on the outside, but once you get to know him, he's one hell of a guy. I was beginning to prefer him over Garth and Ed, but that was a difficult decision to make. I had known Garth and Ed for years while Conner and I only met a year prior or so.

While we walked, Conner actually told me something I didn't know. His grandfather was apparently a small town writer. He wrote short stories and articles for a newspaper, although I can't remember what goddamn town it was. This seemed pointless until he mentioned that some of the things that his grandfather wrote about was death and what lies beyond, which seemed relevant to what we were enduring. Instead of me heading home, I instead went to Conner's house to see these stories. The first one I read, called "The Wild's Tear", was about a boy who was forced to hunt in order to save his father's land from predators. The entire time he feels like he won't be able to succeed, but sees a vision of his father at night and begins to search for his father. The boy _actually_ thought that his father was somewhere out there. Once he realized he may or may not be alone, he took down the predators and continued to live alone.

The story was interesting. It was very well written, but the symbolism and all that was complex. It reminded me heavily of _The Catcher in the Rye_ in that everything related to one theme and it all was freaking convoluted. Nothing was really out in the open for you to see. All that could be understood had to be research and stuff. Conner's grandfather lived around the time of J.D Salinger, so he might've been inspired or something, but that's what it seemed like to me.

One I was done reading the short stories, I decided it would be wise to tell Conner about Anon.

"Who's Anon?" Conner was sorting the stories back into a box, "Like, Anonymous?"

"Just Anon, but whatever. He has been talking to me since this whole Ancient Minecraft stuff started and..." I tried to find the right words to get the whole 'Anon is me' thing across clearly, "He keeps saying that he is me."

Conner put the box of stories on a shelf, "Anon is you? How does that work?"

"That's why I was asking you. I have no idea," I was getting ready to leave, "he also sent me a bunch of words. I think it was 'Grief', 'Rupture' or something, and 'Ion' or whatever. The first of them was Xanadu, though. Like, he sent four emails, and the first was Xanadu."

"Xanadu? As in the server or the person?" Conner and I were on the front porch of his house.

"Beats me."

"If it's the server, then that leads nowhere. However," Conner sounded like he was having a revelation or something, "if it was the person, then could the other names be people as well?"

"That's what I was sort of thinking."

Conner seemed like he was really understanding it all, "The duplication program must've been doing this."

"The program? Are you sure?"

"Just think about it. Xanadu turned out to be Blackfield and Anon is supposedly you. That would make sense, right?"

Hell yeah, it really did make sense. Like, _my god_, it made sense. Conner was a freaking genius. The duplication program must've been doing this sort of thing all along. It must've cloned me and Blackfield and turned us into Anon and Xanadu. What would that mean for the other names? Like, Aeon, Rapture, and Grief? Were they the others? That was a horrible thought. Conner made perfect sense. We _had_ to tell Blackfield. We were onto something. We had taken the first big steps in quite a few days.

The next day I was pretty damn excited. I was wide awake during school, which was definitely uncommon. I just wanted to go to The Place and tell Blackfield and Solstice about all that Conner and I figured out. It would be perfect. When I got home, I waited half an hour before getting on. Sure enough, everyone was in The Place, standing around. Hopefully Conner hadn't told them anything yet. _I_ wanted to be the one to tell them.

Conner turned to me, "Howie! We've been waiting for you. You had something you wanted to tell us, right?"

Goddamn, I think Conner was my best friend now.

"Blackfield, I think there is confirmation that the duplication program made Xanadu into you. I've been contacted by someone calling themself Anon who said that they were me. They also listed various names that I assume to be the clones of others." I said. It didn't go as well as I hoped, but oh well. At least I had gotten it out in the open.

Blackfield just stood there, taking in the information, I guess, "I see. Whether or not that is true matters not right now. We can't look more into this unless we get into contact with another server. Otherwise, we're stuck in this goddamn mountain."

Right, the goddamn _mountain._

__I looked over to the tunnel and walked over to it, "There was something else Anon told me."

"What?" Solstice remarked. It was the first time she had spoken all day, I guess.

"He spoke of a light at the end of the tunnel," I said, really beginning to think about it then, "at first it sounded like he was referring to death, but he later said that he meant this tunnel. In a way, the light at the end of the tunnel represents heaven, or a new life or beginning."

They understood where I was going. Finishing this tunnel would be the next step. It would be a new beginning.

We all began digging our way through walls of dirt and stone. It was incredible just how goddamn productive we were. We didn't say a single goddamn word to each other. We were just freaking digging. Digging and digging, waiting for that light to appear. Many things ran through my head while we tried to finish this tunnel. I kept wondering what would be outside. I kept wondering where we'd go from there. I even wondered whether one of us would die next. If so, who? I was scared to think. If it were Conner, I wouldn't be too sad since I know him in real life, but if it were Blackfield or Solstice, then... I dunno what I'd do other than go freaking insane.

We kept digging.

And digging.

Until I saw it.

I saw the goddamn light.

I had broken a single block, but saw it. We broke the rest of the wall and faced the light. We kept walking. We were standing on cobblestone now. It wasn't dirt, just cobblestone. Beyond was just water. A bunch of water, too. Water as far as the eye could see. We stepped out to the edge of the cobblestone and looked up at the massive mountain we had been meeting in for quite some time. Beside us, to our left, were stairs leading up the side of the mountain. All four of us walked up these stairs to the top of the mountain where we stopped in shock at what stood before us.

They were simply there. No one had built them. They were just sort of freaking _there_. They were on top of this grassy mountain top that no one had been to.

They were the last three Forbidden Machines.

_Disconnected_.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**AkatsukiLivesForever: **Thank you.

**Avaister: **Sounds intense, man. You should write about it, though. This goes for anyone with strange experiences in Minecraft. You should write about it for other people to see.

**Fantasmic: **Yeah, it's not necessarily me from the _future_, it's just a clone of me because of the goddamn duplication program. And _damn_, I guess FMP forgot to put those two in a couple chapters ago. Blame him for ignoring that freaking mistake!

**FMP Response: I didn't do nothin'.**

**Chalkolatedragun: **I'm glad you're enjoying it. I've been getting decent practice with writing from this even though my specialty is in art.

**manaphymajic1999: **I feel sorry for you, man. Remember that there are plenty of people to talk to on this community.

**Blocker11: **There might've been a few, but I was too busy to pay attention. Actually, I think there were. I dunno, I can't remember.


	29. One Week

_**Chapter XXIX: One Week**_

We changed.

I mean every single one of us.

Hell, it seemed like _everybody_ changed. Not just us Debuggers, but everyone in the whole goddamn world. After we saw the outside of The Place, we felt different. Maybe more alive? I dunno. It was different and beautiful. It was as if Ancient Minecraft had this grip on us and we had finally broken free of it. Of course we were still far from finishing this goddamn thing, but we were one step closer. We just needed to wait. Waiting was the hardest part, though. I think that's a Tom Petty song, actually. Whatever.

On Thursday I tried to go back on The Place, but it was gone. As I had expected, it must've been deleted after we got out. Figured, though. Something was going to happen, I though. While we dug I _knew_ something had to happen. That was the point of the goddamn tunnel, right? Anyway, that's how that worked out. The Place was gone and we had nowhere else to meet. I actually got an email from Blackfield not too long after, like Friday morning I think, saying that we wouldn't meet until the next Wednesday. Fine by me, really. I had some things I wanted to set straight. Now that Ancient Minecraft didn't seem to overly depress me, I felt like I could definitely fix what I had messed up.

So Thursday wasn't anything special. I was just thinking about the whole thing. Friday, though, was different. I apologized to all the people I had shut out from my life. I got back into contact with Ed and Garth, but also realized that Conner was, in fact, my best friend at this point. We hung out a lot more and I brought him along more often whenever Ed, Garth, and I would meet up at the mall or something. The dude was awesome, really. He was mature and brilliant.

That Friday night felt weird. It felt incredibly freaking strange. Honestly, I think it was because it was the first Friday in a while where I knew I wouldn't have to be on Minecraft. It would be the first weekend in a while where Minecraft wasn't involved and I couldn't have been happier. I went home with the feeling that everything was right with the world again. Hell, I brought Conner over and he stayed the night. It was amazing, really. We talked a lot, too. We didn't resort to playing a bunch of games or watching movies. We talked. It felt civilized. It felt freaking amazing.

When I woke up on Saturday, I began wondering exactly what I would do that weekend. I mean, I hadn't planned it out too well. I got up with Conner, we took showers and stuff, and just sort of hung out. It was definitely early, too. I usually woke up early on weekends, but Ancient Minecraft messed that up badly. God, I was happy that was over for the most part. Well, not _over_, but resolved internally. I mean I wasn't affected by it as much. I was normal is what I'm saying.

Conner seemed pretty damn normal too. He seemed carefree. He acted like he always had before becoming involved with The Debuggers. It was great to see him becoming a normal man, too. If anyone deserved to escape from this hellhole, then it would be Conner. He deserved getting away. I didn't since I brought it upon myself, in a way. Solstice seemed to go along with my sentiment and Blackfield is determined to finish what he started. Oddly enough, though, Blackfield seemed different in my eyes as well despite me barely even knowing the guy. When I first met him he was pretty serious and working hard. Granted, he is still working hard, but he seems more... weakened? Is that what I should say? He seemed different is all.

Honestly, at this point I wanted to get back into contact with the other Debuggers. It was sort of the reminder of what Lyle was doing. You know, he was cutting himself and all. It was jarring to watch. I worried for him. I still do, honestly, because I never contacted him since what happened. What I really wanted to do was meet with Gage or Hospice. Gage seemed to know more than we did. Either that or he really did know that The Debuggers would fall apart - I mean, Xanadu sort of single-handedly destroyed us. Gage must've been trying to warn us.

Hospice, on the other hand, was a different case. I never knew him, probably never will, but its the freaking curiosity that drives me.

Conner and I decided to gather Garth and Ed and take a hike at this nearby trail we never went down. It was a beautiful Saturday, even though it was freaking winter, and I felt like getting out and being productive. While walking on a trail wasn't the most productive thing around, it was definitely more productive than I usually was. Anything that wasn't freaking Minecraft would be fine.

I tell you, we all were happy. Garth and Ed seemed happier, really. I thought it was because they were getting along with Conner very well, but it was actually that they saw I wasn't who I was before anymore. I was energetic and happy and outgoing. I wasn't keeping to myself. I wasn't sad. I was Howard, the friend they lost for nearly two months. He was back and ready to take on life once more.

"So, Howie," Garth began while we walked down the asphalt trail through the woods, "did you give up Minecraft?"

Damn, they just had to bring that up. It didn't bother me as much as before, though, "Sort of. I'm taking a break from it is all."

"Yeah, 'cause we still haven't played on a server yet. You can join when we do it, Conner." Ed said.

Conner nodded. He felt uncomfortable with that idea. Was it possible he hated Minecraft more than I did?

We kept walking. Honestly, whenever the topic of Minecraft came back up, I just _had_ to shoot it down. This was my escape from it all. I had one week to myself. I didn't want to think about the two months of hell that I've gone through. They didn't mind, though, and I _know_ Conner was happy with how I made sure it never came up.

Eventually we reached this field of wheat. It was strange because it was so far back, seemed abandoned, and none of us had seen it before. It wasn't too big, but it was decent sized. We stood there, looking out over this beautiful field of gold, just staring. No one said anything and it was an odd moment we never had before. We felt like real friends. We were thinking the same things. We remarked on the incredible field. There wasn't much farmland around us, but this was it, I guess.

While I stared, though, my sight changed. It was sort of... out of focus, I guess you could say. I mean I was sort of staring past the field of wheat at a bunch of trees and everything seemed blurred a bit. I shook my head and looked around. A feeling ran through my head. I felt freaking light-headed, of all things. I looked up at the blue sky to see storm clouds in the distance. It was early afternoon.

I nearly broke down when I saw Conner doing the same thing.

We weren't experiencing something from Ancient Minecraft, were we?

No, we _couldn't_ be.

We ended up heading home from there. That night I worried for myself and Conner. I didn't talk to him on the way home, but I felt like I had to. I decided I would meet with him on Sunday to see if he was alright. This feeling, though... it felt like non-existence, if that makes sense. It made me feel artificial. Maybe it was just because I was staring at a goddamn screen for so long. It would pass with time, I supposed. I just hung out, acting normal for the most part, with this feeling still there. It never left. It was destroying me, to be honest.

The next day I went over to Conner's to talk to him. Problem was that when I approached his house, his parents said he was sick and couldn't be around anyone for a little bit. Was it that bad?

Would it be this bad for me?

The next two days leading up to Wednesday were thought-provoking, really. This feeling of being artificial kept freaking coming back and scaring the hell out of me. When I walked around the halls of my school I couldn't help but look at everyone like they were just another Xanadu. Like, you know, just another NPC. They didn't feel real. I was going insane. It was coming back. Ancient Minecraft was going to destroy me mentally now. I had to meet with Solstice. I just _had _to. That Tuesday I emailed Solstice and asked her if I could talk to her.

She never replied.

I thought I wouldn't make it to the next meeting.

It was just as I initially thought.

I couldn't escape Ancient Minecraft.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Fantasmic: **Yeah, Phillip. Way to be wrong. However, what exactly did Phillip believe? I'm just curious is all.

**Chalkolatedragun: **I didn't want to go on Minecraft at this point either. However, since it all ended, I don't think there's anything to be really afraid of.

**WildSmilingPasta: **Now you're just being cryptic as hell, dude. Why not make a story out of this?

**Guest: **Thank you, I appreciate it.

**manaphymajic1999: **Honestly, I never thought of it like that. All four of us just thought that it was because the last three were freaking difficult to craft, but you might be onto something here. I dunno if that's how it worked, but that's pretty interesting thought.


	30. Non-Existence

_**Chapter XXX: Non-Existence**_

As soon as I got home that Wednesday, I went right to my room with worry and ache in my goddamn heart.

It was this day that proved to be the most difficult to get through that entire single week between meetings or whatever. I felt guilty. I looked around wherever I went with anxiety. It felt like everyone was an NPC. Like they weren't real. I felt non-existent. It was that goddamn feeling again! That same feeling that had been destroying me emotionally for that last half of the week. It felt horrible. I felt fake. Everything felt fake. Every goddamn little thing felt fake and I couldn't take it anymore. That's why when I got home, I felt at peace, yet at war.

I sat down in my computer chair and looked out my window. The sky was cloudy, as if it were about to rain, and I knew that the approaching night would become a miserable one. The feeling of non-existence was a terrible one. It was the worst feeling yet. I hadn't experienced anything like this from Ancient Minecraft. I didn't think it could get worse than this.

Anyway, I waited a couple of hours before signing onto The Place, as I usually did. Once those hours passed, I booted up Minecraft and-

Damn. I forgot.

The Place was gone. We found those Forbidden Machines and the place was deleted. Talk about a _crazy_ experience. I sat in my computer after remembering what happened and wondered to myself, _Where now?_ We had no meeting place. Or did they get something figured out and haven't told me yet? I couldn't think straight anymore. I swear, this whole feeling of non-existence was destroying my psyche. I hoped it would pass soon. Otherwise, I might've literally gone insane. Instead of turning off my computer and pretending like the whole thing was over, I left it open to my email and went to lie down on my bed. Eventually an email from Blackfield or Solstice regarding our mission would show up, or so I thought. I just had to wait.

An hour passed before I was finally contacted by Blackfield.

_Howard,_

_Come to Horoscope. We're waiting for you._

_Blackfield._

About goddamn time. All that aside, I'd almost completely forgotten about Horoscope. It didn't even come across my mind that we could possibly meet up there, but oh well. I didn't need the freaking coordinates he tagged. I knew the server, so I just signed right on. I honestly felt a bit hopeful for seeing Solstice once again. I hoped she wasn't suffering from the same feeling that Conner and I suffered from. It was a fear of mine, really. I wanted the best for her. I wanted the absolute best.

When I spawned in Horoscope, it seemed the three of them had been waiting there forever. Blackfield, Solstice, and Conner were loaded up on resources and stuff while I was scrawny and bare-handed. How long had they been waiting for me?

"Howie, were you planning on skipping out on tonight's meeting?" Blackfield asked. I dunno how to really describe his tone. He sounded angry, but I couldn't really take it seriously.

"I never got a message about where we'd be meeting from now on." I answered. Honestly, it was the complete truth. If they wanted me to be on time or whatever, then they should've given me the address beforehand. That's how I feel with a lot of things. It makes it feel like no one understands me. I won't say that, though, since that makes me sound freaking depressed. Well, I sort of _am_, but whatever.

Solstice stood between us, "How about we get going on this mission briefing?"

I looking over to Conner, who was wearing a bunch of golden armor and stuff. He just remained still and silent. He was probably idle at the moment.

"Alright, this is the deal. I received information from this Anon regarding our next server called 'Futures'. I've already done enough beforehand research on this place to understand what we'll be dealing with. Since we've all stocked up for the most part, we should be set to head out. Is everyone with me so far?" Blackfield kept saying he wasn't a leader, but he sounded like one. I swear, he sounded like a freaking leader.

Solstice and I sort of nodded.

"Those names that were sent to you," Blackfield looked at me, "Grief, Rapture, and Aeon. Those names, I believe, belong to certain NPCs that exist in this server. This server also happens to be the biggest one we'll come across in Ancient Minecraft, or so Anon told me."

This all made sense, but I had one last question, "What's our goal, then? Find that cross thingy like before?"

"While I'm unsure what the cross signifies, I feel that might be what we're looking for. For that matter, however, I also learned some vital information from the programming of Futures," Blackfield continued on explaining like the goddamn leader he was, "there were files hidden within the server that are apparently locked by those NPCs. If we want access to those files, then it is necessary that we eliminate the three NPCs. That is our goal."

What a goal, too. Initially it was just exploration that was on our mind. Now we had to actually kill and hunt and stuff. It seemed off-putting, really. Everything we had done before wasn't like this. Now we're actually growing into a more dramatic sort of experience. Like, we never _had_ to kill, did we? Besides with Xanadu or whatever. Never mind, I dunno where I'm going with this anymore.

Anyway, that was basically it. Blackfield said he needed to have some time to get the information for getting the server. Since we had two days until the operation began, I decided to take it easy. This feeling of non-existence was terrible, though. I just remembered it was even there at this moment. Blackfield signed off and I noticed Conner was still idle. In a way, that only left Solstice and I.

"Solstice, have you been feeling alright?" I asked. I was concerned. Like, absolutely concerned.

"No. Not at all. Have you been feeling it too?" She asked.

"Yeah. It's horrible."

We stood there. We had bonded, but that was it. This feeling was destroying our emotional value, or something. It made us feel empty. We just kinda looked around as if we were lost in a new world. This feeling was horrible. I dunno how to describe it, really. It felt like the real world was just completely fake. I wanted it to go away. This Minecraft game and all. The feeling, too.

"Solstice, is there anything I can-"

_Disconnected_.

Damn it, not this server too.

Anyway, another two days separated me from the future. Actually, scratch that since it sounds stupid. The whole thing was interesting, though. I felt like this was sort of the end, but not really. I had a pit in my stomach making me fear for my life, but a thought in my head telling me to move forward. Somewhere in the middle was that feeling, though. The feeling of non-existence. It was horrible.

Nothing happened those two days, either. Seriously, I went to school, got freaking isolated from Garth and Ed again, and began to feel my life degrade. Conner was absent both days as well. I worried about him, really. He didn't deserve this. I swear, he was the only person left who didn't freaking deserve this.

When Friday night arrived, I opened up my email, got the code for Futures, and signed right on.

Everyone was already there, too. Was I always this late?

The place I had spawned in wasn't a barren, open field or anything, though. In fact, it was just an enclosed brick house with three floors. The middle floor had a kitchen, paintings, and couch since, again, we could freaking sit down in Ancient Minecraft. The upper floor had beds for us an chests. It made me feel as if someone had expected us, but oh well. The bottom floor had just a bunch of chests already filled with resources. It seemed like we were set for hunting down these goddamn NPCs.

It wasn't until I noticed how silent everybody was being that I feared for what was outside.

I turned around to the kitchen and saw out the window.

Outside this small house was what appeared to be an abandoned wasteland covered in ash and snow. Animals and monsters wandered as one. It didn't even have to be dark for mobs to appear. They roamed carelessly, killing animals for their resources. It was sickening. It was terrifying. We were all cooped up in this house with a single (or three, really) mission. Where were we supposed to go? This world was supposedly the biggest that we'd come across. Would we get all of this done tonight? I couldn't think straight. I couldn't say anything. Night was approaching and this house would be swarmed. I tried to fear, but I couldn't.

All I knew was that I was facing the _future_ of Minecraft.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Leina727: **Parasitic earwig? Never heard that before. Anyway, I never met Hospice. Blackfield repeatedly said he wanted me to get in contact with him, but I never could.

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **I handled it? What do you mean? And don't be scared by Minecraft. There is nothing to be scared of.

**Cygnus: **Honestly, it was just a cube. I would say it looked sort of like a companion cube from Portal, but I don't really like Portal, so whatever. It was literally just this massive block with a cannon sticking out of it. Either way, if you do end up building it, I don't think you'd be brought into Ancient Minecraft. Anyone who is scared of entering Ancient Minecraft shouldn't be.

**manaphymajic1999: **That's an interesting theory, but it probably was untrue. While Ancient Minecraft was freaking bizarre, I don't think it was _that_ advanced to really apply who we were to the goddamn game. I mean, it's plausible, but unlikely. Interesting thinking, though. I really enjoy your theories.


	31. Ballad of the Night

_**Chapter XXXI: Ballad of the Night**_

We all huddled together (sort of) as the sounds of mobs around us became more frightening.

To be honest, though, the whole event felt too real. I mean _more_ real than life. Well, real life, anyway. The thing is that I felt more involved with Ancient Minecraft than I did with freaking life. School has become a blur to me, but getting through these servers had become what I had planned to do. I had completely forgotten about drawing in order to pursue the unknown end of this mind game. Whatever Notch was hiding had to be discovered. We, of all people, would be the ones to bring it to light.

"Alright, let's make a plan," Blackfield said as we moved to the basement, "we need to guard this house. We cannot let the mobs take control."

This was pretty freaking obvious, really. If mobs got anywhere inside the house, we were screwed. We had to keep all entrances to the inside blocked at all times. It ultimately came down to Blackfield and I watching the front while Solstice and Conner kept to the back, even though there wasn't an entrance back there. Then again, there are the freaking creepers. Who knew what they would be capable of?

It seemed that once we became prepared that the mobs had sort of retreated. They were all up in our business before we were confident with what we were doing. Were they feeding off of our nervousness? No, that was stupid. Not even these freaking programs could be that advanced. They just randomly retreated, that's all. They didn't completely go, though. They just backed up to a decent distance before stopping and staring. Unlike in God Mountain, though, it was the normal types of mobs. Only green creepers, only white skeleton archers, only black spiders, etc.

While we waited for the mobs to advance, we began to construct a stronger wall. We didn't want to show offense to the mobs. We wanted to be as defensive as possible. We were in new territory, and Blackfield and I agreed on this - when you're in new territory, the worst thing to do is show superiority. Be defensive. We used a bunch of the cobblestone that Blackfield had and built a more dense doorway and wall. If a creeper were to try and blow the house to bits, then it wouldn't do as much damage. It would actually be a warning, really.

I guess Solstice and Conner did the same in the back. They moved the kitchen a bit and began to build another entrance in case we needed to escape. They made sure to make the exit big enough that it wouldn't hurt us. That's really how the first half-hour went. We didn't attack and the mobs didn't either. We were really only setting up for what would be a horrible battle.

And _oh_ was it!

It all started with the freaking atmosphere. We all gathered at our positions (Blackfield and I at the front; Solstice and Conner at the back) before hearing an odd, ominous tune. We had no idea where the hell it came from. It seemed to be a glitch or something. As the tune continued, it slowly got louder while the sky got darker; and as the sky got darker, the mobs got closer. We all prepared for the battle while the tune became even more worrisome.

While we waited for the mobs to initiate the battle, Blackfield noted to me that the song that was playing wasn't really part of normal Minecraft. I didn't know the songs of Minecraft, so I went along with that sentiment. The song sounded sort of melodic. There was a piano playing some light-hearted tune with rain in the background. There were some cymbals in the background, but they were pretty quiet. It reminded me of Midna's Lament from that one Zelda game (Twilight Princess, I think?).

Finally, a skeleton shot an arrow at the front door, starting the battle.

Solstice and Conner remained in the house, making sure nothing got through either entrances while Blackfield and I began fighting off the mobs. This didn't seem unusual except for the large amount there was. It wasn't as many as God Mountain, but it was still a lot. We were fighting then, not taking any damage, and feeling pretty confident with ourselves. Once we had hit a certain kill count (I guessed 100) the mobs retreated like before. It must've been some sort of wave thing.

However, I received an email from Anon after the first wave.

_Wes,_

_Ballad of the Night._

_Anon._

Damn, he's being cryptic again. Not what I needed at a time like this.

Anyway, five minutes passed and all four of us prepared for the second incoming wave. This time there were more creepers, which meant more threats on our part. Since we expected more waves after this, Solstice and I took the back while Blackfield and Conner controlled the front. When the mobs began attacking, we began fighting back with more force.

Solstice had crafted a bow at some time and was bringing down the mobs one by one from a distance while I kept them at bay. The creepers were difficult to keep up with, though. When I said there were a lot more, I meant _a lot more_. They seemed to make up 75% of the freaking army. I was afraid we wouldn't be able to hold up much longer. The fear of getting booted from Ancient Minecraft kept driving me, though. To fight alongside Solstice in such an awe inspiring battle was what I wanted for the rest of this journey.

The mobs slowly diverted their direction to the front of the house. Solstice told me to go and help Blackfield and Conner defend the front while she remained in the back. I did as she said and continued to drive back the creepers. Sometimes they would just explode for no reason, though. There were holes everywhere from where they had exploded. We really had to watch our step to make sure we didn't fall and lose any health.

Eventually this wave died down as well and we all moved back to the house. The song kept playing, though, and I began to feel that it might've been coming from underground. I mean, it got louder when I passed by the holes left by creepers. While we waited for the next wave, I dug down to try and find where the song was coming from, but couldn't. I then got another email from Anon:

_Wes,_

_11._

_Anon._

Well, alright. I guess that's fine, too. Really, it felt like I should know what the hell he's talking about since he's me. Anyway, I got back out and we all just sort of split up. The fear of dying became even more evident with this third wave, which was _massive_. There were all kinds of mobs, maybe even an Enderman or two as well. We knew this would be the most difficult and we even prayed it to be the last one.

We stood there, all around the house, waiting for them to strike.

And so they did.

The attack began when an Enderman popped right up in front of me. It was teleporting freaking everywhere and it was stressful just taking it out. Once it was gone, though, there were mobs all around me. I had to drive through them like they were a riot. As the number of mobs around me fell, I moved my way over to Solstice, who seemed to be falling behind. Together we kept the back secured and began to move all around the house to assist Conner and Blackfield.

Within minutes the mobs were gone and the house was safe from harm.

We expected a difficult wave, really. It wasn't the easiest, but it wasn't the hardest. It was actually sort of disappointing.

While we all prepared to call it a night and go inside, we turned and noticed it wasn't over.

There was yet another army, the biggest one yet, possibly bigger than the one at God Mountain, surrounding us in this apocalyptic world. We just stood there, realizing this was the end. We only had one minute left before they attacked and killed us all.

Then I got another email from Anon:

_Wes,_

_The giant moves quickly._

_Anon._

__The giant?

Almost instantly when I finished the email, I heard a glorious sound. It was powerful, almost god-like. The mobs all froze as they were about to begin their attack and turned to the massive mountain range in the far distance. There was immense fog around these mountains, and I had all my settings on max. There was a bright light at the top of the mountains and the sound came back. The beautiful sound. It wasn't really beautiful, but it was powerful. It made me feel safe.

The mobs all began to run. I was confused, as were the others, but we soon understood.

At the top of the mountains, we saw a massive creature appear. Was it a person? Was it a mob? We watched as it stood there, still. It was gigantic, touching the sky, and watching over the world like a god. Then it occurred to me.

The light was the person's eyes.

The mobs all ran for their life, eventually disappearing into thin air, and the creature made the same sound.

Then it was gone. The light faded away and we were left there, in front of this house, unsure of what the hell had happened.

The music continued, though.

Blackfield seemed annoyed by it, all of sudden, and began to dig around randomly underneath the house. Eventually he made a "Aha!" sound and came back up with a music disc. It must've been the one we were looking for. When he looked at it more, he seemed confused and surprised. When I looked at it at first, I wasn't surprised since I didn't understand it's name. Now that I've read more into it, though, I think our find was extremely jarring.

The disc was called "Disc 11".

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Fantasmic: **Ha, sounds interesting. Philip sounds like a good person. But no, I'm an only child.

**Blocker11: **Well, once again, thank you for believing me. I've written a lot of parts in advance in order to keep update times frequent.

**WildSmilingPasta: **Nice, alright. Again, you'd make a pretty good writer. Maybe you should consider contributing to the site or something?

**manaphymajic1999: **Nope, no codes. The servers were completely deleted. We tried getting them back, but couldn't.

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **I'm lucky I didn't die. There were many places where I should have died, but didn't.


	32. Through the Light and the Fog

_**Chapter XXXII: Through the Light and the Fog**_

So, as you'd imagined, all of us were stumped on what had happened. It seemed that the further into this mess of a server, the more obscure and messed up everything would freaking be. All we had left to do was huddle around in the house and wait for the morning since exploring a post-apocalyptic server would be a horrible idea, obviously. Everyone just sort of stood there in the living room, looking around like we expected something to pop out and kill us.

"Any ideas?" I randomly said. It was legit question, though. We had witnessed multiple waves of hostile mobs, a massive god-like figure appear far off in the distance, and some sort of explanation of this Disc 11 mystery.

Solstice shook her head.

Conner shook his head.

"Disc 11 is an interesting deal, really. That song that we listened to back during the battle was coming from this disc, but it sounded nothing like the actual disc. It was actually music this time while it usually is just a bunch of noises," Blackfield continued thinking on that one, "what's _really_ strange is that Disc 11 is supposed to be a broken record."

I looked back at the disc I had and noticed what Blackfield was getting at. This Disc 11 wasn't broken like it was supposed to be.

Had we stumbled upon the origin of this thing?

We put that thought aside and prepared for the morning. The interesting thing was that despite all of us having to be in beds at the same time for it to skip to morning (as usual), if you just lay in bed then you would heal. That's sort of what we did. We didn't bother skipping to morning since there was much work to be done. One person would be healing while the rest of us would be getting supplies ready. It occurred to me while we were doing this that my powers of controlling lava were pretty much useless. We barely even used these powers. That didn't worry me too much, though. It was alright that I didn't really have to use it.

Once morning finally arrived, all four of us were healed and ready to depart. Then the real question arose.

Where the hell were we supposed to go?

We were stranded in this world without direction. We considered splitting up, but thought that that would be a horrible idea since we have no idea what to expect. Ultimately we decided that it would probably just be best to head for where we saw that giant. If we had any clues at this point, it was that thing we saw the previous night. It was massive with shining eyes and all. It had to mean something, so we decided it would be wise to try and learn that meaning.

While traveling to those mountains in the distance, we noticed it slowly began to snow. Of course I thought it wasn't snow - I thought it was ash, of all things, but whatever. Sometimes we'd just stop to marvel at the stuff. You know, just unwind and take a break from it all. We hadn't gotten much snow in the real world, so this was like the next best thing.

Eventually we had to get back into the game when creepers began approaching us from all around. It seemed more mobs were present when we got closer to the foot of the goddamn mountain. That was a good sign, I guess. It meant we were getting somewhere that we weren't meant to get. Finally we reached the foot of the mountains where a gigantic set of steps was placed before us, leading up the mountain. Solstice and I took the back while the other two remained in front. We were tasked with making sure no mobs surprised us or anything while Blackfield and Conner just made sure we got to the top successfully.

The top wasn't really the end, though. When we reached the top of the stairs, it was just a flat peak covered in ash and snow. The sun was much brighter up here, but that was pretty much a given. We looked out over the other mountains, which had caves in them. There were wooden bridges that filled the massive gaps between them. The mountains went on for a while, stretching out to as far as I could see. Of course there was the fog blocking a lot of my vision, but whatever.

"Shall we continue? We want to get this over with as quickly as possible." Blackfield said and began to cross the bridge.

We all followed, though cautiously, and made it to the first mountain. We looked down over the edge and found that we could no longer see the ground from here. The dense fog was blocking it all. All ground around the mountain couldn't be seen, for that matter. There was just a bunch of fog and clouds and stuff, I guess. Anyway, that's what it looked like.

When we were all on the first mountain, we faced the cave heading down into it. Though I was reluctant to even enter, I knew I would have to. I decided to take the lead this time and take the others down. The stairs went on for a while and eventually ended at a small room where only a chest was. I opened it, found a note, and put it in my inventory. We all left the cave and stood atop the mountain, looking out at wonder of what we could possibly be getting into.

The note read, "ARG."

"Alternate Reality Game?" I said initially.

"No, you dumbass. It must mean Aeon, Rapture, and Grief. It probably means we'll find them up here." Blackfield acknowledged.

That made more sense, honestly. Why couldn't Blackfield just handle all this stuff? He seemed a bit more conscious about all that was freaking happening with this stupid stuff. Anyway, we decided that we should try and get these NPCs out of the way as quickly as possible. We began to cross the second bridge, which was significantly longer than the first, to the next mountain where we hoped, or at least presumed, that Aeon would be or something. At this point we were just pulling for lines. We had no idea what we were doing.

When we reached the second mountain, I stopped and looked out to where we saw the giant appear the night before. Everyone else was beginning to travel down into the mountain and prepare for whatever was coming at us, but I was just thinking. There was some significance about all of this that we were missing. There were answers to countless secrets out there, including an answer, or supposedly, to Disc 11. That giant meant something. That giant was like a god in that it drove the mobs away almost instantly with an insanely bright light. A glorious, powerful light.

Glorious... Glamorous...

Sort of like Xanadu.

Did Xanadu have some sort of importance to this being? They didn't look alike. Hell, I could barely even remember what the giant looked like. The light around him was too bright for me to get a proper look. Either way, all I really had to work off of was his bright eyes. They shone like diamonds. They matched him, too. He had insane powers. Would we have to fight him later, possibly? If so, then what exactly was it?

With that in mind, I descended into the depths of the mountain.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Blocker11: **Well, anyone can write. They just have to put effort into it and stuff. I just don't really write often. I'm sure I could. I just don't.

**manaphymajic1999: **Again, you think with interesting thoughts. While we never really found out the absolute truth about it, we learned quite a lot about it that you'll see soon, I think.

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **Wow, that's incredible. I really appreciate it. It's an honor to know that I led you to do something like that.

**Cygnus: **I honestly dunno anymore. Since Ancient Minecraft is basically inactive, I don't know if building a Forbidden Machine will have the same effect as it usually would.

**generaltemujin: **Not my favorite, but the most interesting, I guess. I don't really have a favorite disc.

**Fantasmic: **Trust me, you'll find out about that giant soon enough. And it's not exactly hard writing, but it can be difficult having to think back to this whole thing. Sometimes I'll forget something and I'll have to think hard to remember. It gives me headaches, but doesn't really hurt me emotionally anymore.

**Ashuradahedgehog: **Again, I'm sorry, but I don't think I have any. I've stated in previous chapters that I've gotten a new computer since and most of the images or anything I took back then were wiped or completely lost. I've tried finding an image, but none have come up. If I ever do find one, though, I promise to show it to you guys.


	33. The Black Void

_**Chapter XXXIII: The Black Void  
**_

_****_So remember those doors in Xanadu that we had to hack into?

Turns out there were more.

_A lot more._

__When we descended into the second mountain, expecting to find Aeon somewhere, we instead ran into one of those hacking door things. Blackfield stepped up to crack it while we all just kind of stood around theorizing. Conner and Solstice all said the same things, though. They pretty much thought the same as me. I guess that was a sign that we were on the right track or something. Anyway, Blackfield took a hell of a lot of time with getting that door unlocked, but when it was open, we all found ourselves just facing this weird black room.

Actually, it wasn't even really a freaking room. More like a void. We all didn't want to enter it, but we knew we had to. Really, anything we were going to run into we'd have to deal with. That's why I became worried about that goddamn giant. I didn't wanna face it. No one did, but I think I was the only one really thinking about it at the time. Anyway, back to the black void.

Blackfield, being the leader, sort of, and all, went in first, followed by me, then Solstice, then Conner. We all just sort of walked, too. We just kept walking straight while occasionally looking back to see if the freaking light from the mountain was still there. Were we even in the freaking game anymore? It seemed like this wasn't Minecraft. I felt like it might've been something like The Logic System in that it wasn't really even in the game. Oh well. We went on ahead, just sort of walking.

Every minute or so, Blackfield would begin yapping about seeing a freaking gray light up ahead. No one believed him for most of the time until we looked ahead and began to see it as well. It sort of looked like a street lamp in a city or something. Like a black and white film. Something like that. We walked towards it, but it would always disappear and stuff, leaving us in the black void again. Was Aeon in here somewhere? Was he at the gray light? Nothing made sense anymore. We just sort of walked.

"This is pointless. We're not getting anywhere." Solstice uttered. I agreed with her. It was freaking stupid.

"Just keep walking. We'll reach that gray light eventually." Blackfield encouraged.

"Look behind us! The light from the mountain is still there!" Solstice shouted.

We all looked back and noticed that she was actually right - the mountain was still there. It looked like we hadn't even moved a bit. So, really, Solstice and I were completely right. We weren't getting anywhere. I guess we were just walking into a wall, literally, or something.

After giving up, we all went back to the mountain, thought things over, and tried again. This time, though, only one person went at a time. I decided to go first and see what the deal was. It was like last time, though. I wasn't getting anywhere. Whenever I turned and looked back at the others, they'd still be the same distance. I went back and everyone else tried, but the same deal. No one could get to that gray light.

So we were all just standing in that cave place, looking around like idiots. There was probably some incredibly obvious answer that we just weren't seeing.

**"1 New Email."**

****I opened my email after hearing the alert and saw that I had a new email from none other than-

**"1 Email From: Aeon."**

****Wait, what?

I expected Anon of all people. What was Aeon doing contacting me now?

_Dear Howard,_

_It works like this... like a wall that hasn't been built yet. You feel the compulsion to walk through it, but find yourself merely walking into it. It's an illusion that you decide to ignore. Ignoring will not save Johan, though._

_Aeon._

__Even though it was someone else, it felt just as cryptic as Anon was. Anyway, I read the email to everyone, and they were just as dumbfounded as I was. I swear, we were all just about to pack it up and head back to that house. It was getting late in real life anyway. However, there had to be an answer behind whatever the hell Aeon said. What Anon would tell me made sense; this should make sense as well, one way or another.

I kept reading the email repeatedly while everyone kept trying to get through the void to the gray light, which seemed to be taunting us now. He mentioned that it was an illusion. Well, if it was an illusion, why the hell can't we get through it? And who the hell is Johan?

Then I remembered the home video. I heard that name before.

That child's name was Johan, wasn't it? I still didn't know what was going on in the video, but it seemed important.

Anyway, I continued trying to think about what the hell to do. A wall that hasn't been built yet, huh?

...

I walked into the void and to where everyone else was standing. I had a bunch of dirt with me, so I decided that would be easy to use or whatever. I took it out and began just sort of making a wall of it in front of me. I kept making it as long as I could before I ran out. Solstice, Conner, and Blackfield just stared at me with confusion. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I was doing. I was just making the wall that, before, hadn't been made yet.

When it was done, I made a sort of doorway in the middle. We all walked through, confused as to what the hell just happened, and found ourselves in the gray light. We were no longer in the black void. It must've been something with the coding of the game. This area, the void, was probably just corrupted or something. That would explain why putting down blocks sort of worked, I think. I dunno, that's all I got.

We stood around in the gray light for a little bit before noticing some figure appear in the darkness. He just stood there, completely still, looking awfully familiar. He had the same design and outfit and all as Conner, except he had this obsidian rapier, sort of like Xanadu. He just kept standing there, though, like he was ready to finish us then and there.

Aeon didn't speak. All we heard was static.

Then a laugh.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**manaphymajic1999: **I've never tried Tekkit before. How well does it work?

**AkatsukiLivesForever: **Trust me, Notch becomes incredibly important soon. Just you wait.

**WildSmilingPasta: **You sure know what you're talking about, dude. I never really trusted Anon from the start anyway.

**Cygnus: **No, you won't go into Ancient Minecraft. If it destroyed the moon, though, I dunno what's going on there. Be sure to let me know what happens, though. That sounds interesting.


	34. Star Destroyer

_**Chapter XXXIV: Star Destroyer**_

_****_Having to face Aeon at this point was mind numbing. In a horrible way, though. As in this was the most gut-wrenching part of Ancient Minecraft yet.

It was so difficult to handle simply because he didn't move anymore. He remained still, speaking in this strange voice. It was like a robot, or Microsoft Sam or whatever. It was monotonous and annoying and scaring the hell outta me. All four of us stood there, in the goddamn gray light, facing this bastard while he just spoke in this annoying voice. What he said was almost more cryptic than what Anon would tell me through email. I swear, I wanted to kill this guy instantly, but couldn't. There was some sort of other invisible wall keeping us from him.

Not really keeping us _from_ him, though.

More so, keeping _us_ inside.

"Johan has been yearning to see his friends again." Aeon spoke in that goddamn voice. I swear, it was destroying me. I know that cursing this much might be annoying you guys, but I can't express my anger any other freaking way! This guy terrified me! I wanted to freaking cry and just kill myself! There was no goddamn point in trying to reason with him!

I had to push myself away from the computer while he continued rambling on about this Johan guy. Eventually, my stomach betrayed me and I had to rush to the bathroom to throw up. When I returned five minutes later, Aeon was still there, except he was holding Xanadu's mask in his hand like it was freaking weapon.

This was when I had enough. The bastard was taunting us for far too long, "How about you shut it and let us kill you?"

I wish I hadn't said that.

First of all, he disappeared. The gray light became horrifyingly dimmer. There was the sound of wind and I was hit. I turned and saw him beating my character senselessly with his rapier. I fell to the ground and looked to see everyone else just standing there, watching as I was pulverized. They were either too freaking scared to face this guy, or they were literally frozen. I didn't want it to be either, really. I didn't want to die, but this guy wouldn't freaking let up!

On the inside, I was legitimately crying. My eyes were becoming watery and I just wanted to shriek. This was abnormal. What the hell was this guy doing to us, or me?

When I was nearly dead, only one heart left, he disappeared and went behind the barriers again. I didn't dare move or speak. He just began talking again, mocking us and talking about this goddamn Johan guy like he was God or something (maybe I went a bit far there.) It seemed he would hurt anyone who tried to oppress him. He was in charge at this point. He was making us suffer. There was no escape.

I reached for the power button on my computer. It was the only way.

"You there, the weak one," Aeon was facing me, holding Xanadu's mask again, "where is Johan?"

"Who is Johan? Who the hell is this Johan you're talking about?" I asked angrily. I regretted it since I knew he'd come and kill me. He didn't, though.

Aeon just sort of walked around in the void beyond the gray light, "Johan watches over us from the land in which he was blessed with. We shall serve him as you have been all this time."

What did he just say?

"Who is Johan?" Blackfield finally decided to freaking join in. God, I felt like I was alone here.

"Johan is alone, as he had always been. You are his friends and servants, and he is grateful for your dedication to his world."

World? Servants?

"Just what kind of game is this?" I asked angrily.

"No game," Aeon appeared back in the gray light, obviously about to kill me with his rapier, "only dedication."

I got up and began running like hell towards the others while Aeon approached us. He was whacking wildly at us, obviously lacking strategy in killing us. Strange since he resembled Conner, and Conner is a freaking genius. Either way, we were basically done here. As I prepared to die, I reached for the power button on my computer again.

**"1 New Email."**

****I opened it up quickly while Aeon dealt with the others.

**"1 Email From: Anon."**

****I opened it:

_Wes,_

_I know you may hate me. I know you greatly detest the agony of this game. There are things that were never meant to be seen._

_However, find the purity in the situation. Take it and run with it. No matter where you go, I will be with you._

_Anon._

__The hell was that supposed to mean? That might've been the most cryptic he had ever been before. Either way, it didn't help at all. He was speaking of purity like it was the most obvious freaking thing out there. I'm sorry I couldn't understand his logic!

"Someone must die in order to honor Johan!" Aeon said.

What here was pure? There was nothing pure in this goddamn void.

Then I saw it.

I had been facing it all this time.

"Who shall be the one to say farewell?" Aeon said again.

The darkness around me. Was this the purity of it all?

Another email came to me.

_Wes,_

_Deus Ex Machina._

_Anon._

__There we go.

I turned to Aeon, who was hacking away at the others, quickly depleting their health like it was nothing. At the bottom of my screen, as I had expected, appeared a "Press X to Activate" sign. It was the same one that popped up when we were facing Xanadu. This was it. Anon was my savior. Either that or already knew what I was going to do _somehow_. I still couldn't believe he was from my future. More likely he was just my clone and acted like he was from my future. Either way, I did as the sign read - I pressed X.

Let me tell you, this part scared me the most.

The gray light dimmed again, stopping Aeon. He just sorta looked around like a dumbass. When the gray light came back, though, he was the frozen one now! From out of the darkness of the void came two figures with glowing eyes. They were shaking a bit, but walked toward Aeon casually. As the figures reached the center of the gray light, I was shocked by what I was witnessing.

It was Octane and Tyrus.

They grabbed onto Aeon and just kinda stood there. Aeon didn't say anything, thank god. He was silent.

Eventually, though, things changed. This was where I became horrified.

Above us, about where the gray light was coming from, appeared a black star - an _obsidian_ star. It appeared and blocked out most of the light. It was small from where I was standing, but I guessed it was much bigger up close. Tyrus and Octane looked up at the star and raised their hands. The star slowly came down towards them, proving me right - it was absolutely massive.

Then it exploded.

Light went everywhere. My screen became too bright for me to even see. I fell to my floor and curled up like a wussy. This was where I was horrified - by the unknown. Two people that had died previously had now caused some sort of... I dunno what to even freaking call it! It was too bright to even see anymore.

That wasn't the end of it, though. There was more. _Much_ more._  
_

Right after the light faded, white text appeared in the top right corner of my screen.

It read 2004-7-19, or July 19th, 2004. It was another goddamn home movie - four months after the first one.

This one was in the same place, though. It was that boring old living room. The mother, I think, was holding the camera and waving it around. She pointed it at the same little boy from before, who was playing on the floor. As the boy just spat out nonsense, she turned the camera over to the TV in the corner. It was some sitcom program I didn't know of since I never watched TV, but I noticed the logo in the corner that was bright red, maybe pink, with a 4 in it and the word "Komedi" under it. While the mother just sort of waved the camera around randomly, I looked up that name and found it to be a channel in Sweden. So these people were speaking Swedish, of all things.

"Johan, snabbt! Städa upp!" The mother said. I had no idea what it meant, though.

The boy looked up. I'm guessing he was Johan. Anyway, he just looked up with puppy eyes, "Varför?"

There was a knock at the door in the video. The mother became a bit pissed and left the camera on the couch she was sitting in. The little boy, or Johan, went and grabbed it, sort of waving it around like the mother had done in the beginning. The mother went to the front door to answer. She opened it up and a sort of big guy walked through the door. He looked to be in his twenties and was sort of balding on the top of his head. He also had a black hat in his hand, which he placed back on his head once he walked into the house. He had this big smile on his face as Johan faced him.

Johan threw the camera to the couch and ran, since I heard footsteps. Johan wasn't on my mind anymore after this, though.

That man was the intriguing one now.

That man was Notch himself.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Godskeybladewarrior: **Like many others have said, this story is very unbelievable. There will be people out there who know what I have gone through, though. You may not be one of them, but just understand that there are people like me. Anyway, thanks. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far.

**Flame: **I'm glad you're enjoying it. Let me know if they like it.

**Guest: **You seem to really know what you're talking about. What made you think that Grief was a girl, though? Interesting thoughts, anyway.

**AkatsukiLivesForever: **I guess you could say it was thrilling... not really fun. Anyway, since many people have been asking this, I'll bluntly put that NO you cannot go into Ancient Minecraft anymore. It's completely gone after we dealt away with it. Think of it as a blessing, though.

**manaphymajic1999: **I see. I never used mod packs before. Anyway, the general consensus among us Debuggers was that Anon, Aeon, Grief, Rapture, and Xanadu were nothing more than programs, or NPCs. Pretty damn advanced NPCs, though. If somebody was controlling them, we wouldn't really care. It would make more sense, though.

**thesexyfox: **There's much more after Disc 11.

**Cygnus: **It may not be Ancient Minecraft, but be freaking careful, dude. I don't want you to have to suffer from anything like that.


	35. Harmonies of Pain

**_Chapter XXXV: Harmonies of Pain_**

Once the video ended, the screen remained black before beginning to fade in. I still wasn't too sure what the hell was going on, but it seemed like everyone was fine. As the game began to appear again, I saw Conner, Blackfield, and Solstice all together. We were back in that house from before. We were weak, tired, and scared of what was going on. No one seemed to move for a little bit. I looked at my clock beside my computer and saw that it was one in the morning now. I barely ever stayed up this late. It wasn't usually healthy, but whatever.

"Guys?" I said into my microphone quietly. I didn't wanna wake my parents.

"What?" Conner said, "Is everyone alright? Did we all see that?"

"Yeah, that video? It was the second one." Solstice said.

Blackfield remained still. Was he thinking this over? I wouldn't blame him, really. There was plenty to think over. Notch was suddenly brought into this. Johan was somehow related to Notch, though I didn't know how. I knew Notch didn't have a child, so that wouldn't work. Nephew, maybe? I dunno. At this time all we were thinking about was our sanity. Aeon was _supposedly_ dead, being killed by the ghosts of Octane and Tyrus (I think.) There were two more NPCs to handle, though: Rapture and Grief. Maybe Anon as well, but I didn't think about that. Would the same things happen when we faced them?

We were all just sorta quiet for a bit. Nothing much to be said.

Finally, I heard Conner suddenly gasp.

Then he logged off.

"Conner? What happened?" I asked the others.

Blackfield remained silent, but Solstice seemed calm, "He was probably just told to get off. We need to get rest anyway. Wanna try again tomorrow?"

Seemed reasonable. Technically, though, we'd be trying again _later_ since it was already Saturday. Whatever, though. We all logged off, went to bed, and began to unwind. I couldn't sleep a bit, though. I would stare out my window at the stars in the sky. It was clear even though it had rained a lot recently. Damn, I remember getting this feeling in my chest. I wanted to see Solstice; I wanted to get along with Blackfield; and I wanted to help Conner. Something was wrong with him.

The next day I woke up pretty early despite only getting around two hours of freaking sleep. I just hung around the house, thinking about what to do. I was guessing that I'd get an email about when we'd go venture back into Futures, even though I really didn't want to. Things were becoming troublesome. Ultimately I decided that I'd go and see Conner later. Make sure he was alright and all.

As the day reached noon, or somewhere around there, I went to go and see Conner, but he wasn't home. I waited a little bit before texting him. He never replied, though. He usually always replied to my texts.

I went home and got an email from Blackfield.

_Howard,_

_Come to Futures. I wish to speak to you._

_Blackfield._

What could this be about? This was unusual, really. Why would he risk going onto Futures at this point? You know, with only two people? That was just a death wish, or something.

When I signed on, he was building a freaking wall around the house. It was a brick wall and nearly done when I logged on. I just sort of watched him build it for a bit before deciding to pity him and help. He wanted the best for all of us, really. He was a nice guy; just a bit arrogant at times.

Once the wall was finished, we just sort of stood on top of it, looking out at the mountain in the distance. We had plenty of time until night came over us, so I guess we didn't need to worry about it.

"Howie, we're going to post-pone the next operation." Blackfield told me.

"What? Why? Is it about Conner?" I asked. I felt Conner was somehow involved. It seemed likely, really. Even though I didn't know what was going on, I worried for him.

"Conner told me that a serious issue arose that he has to deal with. I've decided to give him a week's break, which means a week's break for all of us."

"Is that why you brought me here? Does Solstice know?"

Blackfield hopped off the wall and began digging around the front of the wall, "I told Solstice first. But there's something else I want to talk to you about."

I didn't help him digging. I just waited for him to continue speaking about whatever he was going on about.

"Do you know where I got my name?" Blackfield asked.

"Nope."

"Blackfield is a band made by a guy named Steven Wilson. I've been a big fan of his work and chose that name since it was a personal favorite. The music is grand and varied, though simple." Blackfield continued digging.

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"Since things have escalated with Ancient Minecraft, I sort of... plunged into a depression," Blackfield sorta shocked me there since I never expected him to be a depressed one, "I've been listening to their music a lot. They have a song called Pain that I often associate with all that is going on. They have a song called The Hole in Me that also describes that well."

Hole in me, eh? That's how I felt earlier.

"I tell you this so you are not alone," Blackfield stopped digging, "I know you are suffering in many ways. You are not alone and I'm trying to make you realize this. There are people you can talk to. There are things you can do. Most importantly," Blackfield looked right up at me as it started to get dark in the game, "you can leave whenever you want."

He logged off. I did the same since I didn't wanna deal with those goddamn mobs.

What he said made me realize something I had never considered before. Why the hell was I still going through this? I mean, I _guess _I've thought about it before, but not too much. Since January I've been dealing with this, and I could have left at any time. What was keeping me there? Was it Solstice? Could she be the sole reason that I stuck around to the end?

I got off Minecraft and looked at my phone to see a text from Conner. He had told me to go over to his house.

As I walked over to his residence, I became unusually nervous. Like, I was nearly shaking. I felt cold inside. My mind felt hazy. I felt like I was falling unconscious even though I wasn't. Should I have just leave this thing alone? I thought about that as I knocked on Conner's door.

When he answered, he seemed destroyed. It was obvious he was crying. Whether from being horrified by something, or just being generally sad, I didn't know. I just knew that he had been crying his eyes out. He didn't even say anything, either. He just brought me inside and to his room.

His father wasn't home, but that didn't matter. When I entered his room, his computer was on, but not his monitor. He just sat in his desk chair and tried to hold in more tears. Finally, he spoke.

"Anon emailed me."

Damn it, this couldn't be good! If Anon was beginning to antagonize Conner, than that meant something was really going on. I felt angry. Anon was technically _me - _he should have been dealing with _me_, not anyone else! Goddamn it, I was afraid to ask what Anon had emailed him. I had to, though.

"He sent me a picture." Conner said and turned on his monitor.

On the screen was a picture of Conner's mother. You know, she died from cancer a while ago? This was taken when she was in the hospital. There was Conner and his father by her bed. This was a little bit before she had been pronounced dead. Anon somehow got a hold of this, but how? I looked at the caption below the picture that Anon had attached. It read:

"Say hello to Johan."

What the hell?

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**AkatsukiLivesForever: **That's interesting, but not really the case. I mean, you got the Notch's past right, sorta. He wasn't trying to get rid of Ancient Minecraft. Really, we were and only us.

**Fantasmic: **Yeah, this part of everything was probably the most convoluted. The boy wasn't Notch's son, though. I've never met Solstice or Blackfield in real life, but we plan to once we graduate from high school.

**Why: **Why did who do what?

**manaphymajic1999: **Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. While Ancient Minecraft is pretty freaking advanced, it's not incredible enough that it can put a freaking _person_ in there. Anyway, you'll learn more about Johan soon.

**BlessedMC: **You'd best have insurance 'cause I ain't paying for your damages.

**Guest (CreepersDebuggingMinecraft): **You punched your teacher? Dude, isn't that a little far? Don't let this thing control you. Be cool, alright? Just be normal.


	36. The Picture Show

_**Chapter XXXVI: The Picture Show**_

Long story short, Conner was a freaking mess.

Really, though, I couldn't blame him. Losing a parent must be horrible, but having to be reminded of it has gotta be just as bad. I tried comforting him before he told me to leave and give him some space. I did that gladly. I wanted the best for him. He didn't deserve this. Anon wanted _me_, not Conner. So I did the responsible thing.

When I got home, I email Anon.

_Anon,_

_Keep Conner out of your game. I'm the one you want, not him. Leave him alone._

_Howard._

I expected to hear back from him soon, but didn't. I went back on Futures to see if anything had changed, but everything was the same as before. I had expected Blackfield or something to have gone on there and mess around since we have a goddamn week before we move onto the next NPC. Since I had plenty of time on my hand at this point, I decided to try my hand at piecing together what information we had. I wrote down all the things we had with us at this point as a list and it came out like this:

**1) Notch and Johan are related to each other somehow**

**2) Disc 11 was formerly called "Ballad of the Night" and I assume it to be written by Notch rather than C418**

**3) Xanadu = Blackfield; Anon = Me; Aeon = Conner; Rapture and Grief = ?**

**4) The crosses that we found at the end of each server plays some part in what's going on**

**5) Death and the future is a common theme throughout this whole thing**

**6) Anon is trying to make us realize something. Was he posting the home videos?**

A lot of these things didn't really make sense. I initially thought that Anon had posted the videos for us to see, but then I began thinking that Notch might've included the videos. If so, then _he_ was trying to show us something. At least he was trying to tell us about Johan. Despite this, I had no idea how Johan was even freaking relevant to anything. #3 was basically proven to be a result of the duplication program, so I didn't need to worry about that. #2 was only a theory since it couldn't be proven. However, it was a likely theory since I don't think C418 was brought on at this point in development since I hadn't listened to any of his songs. #4, #5, and #6 all seem to be connected to each other.

All this stuff slipped my mind by the end of the day. I hid the notes so my parents didn't question what was going since they _still_ didn't know what was going on. I was beginning to wonder whether I was doing the wrong thing by keeping them out of the loop. Blackfield told me that I wasn't alone on this, but I felt that way. That's why I didn't tell many people. Well, I didn't tell people because I didn't want them to get involved.

Maybe it wasn't that I felt alone. Could it be that I _wanted_ to be alone on this?

The next day was strange. I felt normal, but no one else did. It felt more like real life, but something felt abnormal. I hung around with Ed and Garth like usual and went home like usual. It was nothing special or memorable. When I got home, though, I suddenly remember the discussion I had with Blackfield. You know, where he told me the inspiration for his name. It was some band or something. I decided to look them up and see if I could have the same connection that he apparently had.

Instead, though, I found that Anon had sent me an email. He _finally_ responded.

There was an image attached, though.

The image was a butterfly under a cloudy sky. It looked sort of apocalyptic in a way. I thought it was raining or storming or something.

There was a message attached, though.

_Wes,_

_Feelings are evident in all_

_Life. Perhaps it is_

_You that doesn't know this._

_When you watch him die_

_In the future, do you_

_Think that there will be_

_Hope for you as well?_

_Just consider that_

_Out of everyone you know,_

_Hate is within them _

_And it is all directed at you._

_Now, fly._

_Anon._

__Damn, he's making no sense again. It seemed like all these NPCs were cryptic bastards. I saved the image for future reference and went on to listening to Blackfield which I rather enjoyed. I got them on my iPod and listened to them throughout the day. I dunno, it felt like their music fit what was going on with me as well. I couldn't blame Blackfield for picking such a name.

The next day I told Garth and Ed about Blackfield (the band) to see if they knew them, but they didn't. I decided to bring them over to my house to introduce them. Hopefully this would also rekindle our friendship that was pretty much dead at this point. My parents were happy to see them again, though. They knew how depressed I had become. They just wanted the best for me, though.

As I got on my computer, I noticed I had another email from Anon. Another image was attached, too.

The image was a freaking hippo. Like, a hippopotamus. What the hell did this mean?

The email went something like this:

_Wes,_

_Could you keep it down?_

_Let people sleep, perhaps?_

_Over in your corner of the world,_

_Up and upon your throne of ego_

_Dies a child that never lived._

_Can you please stop speaking?_

_Up and Upon your bed of lies_

_Lives a child who knows the _

_Truth and accepts it._

_Anon._

__What did this mean?

Garth and Ed were too distracted by other things in my room to see how paranoid I had become. It wasn't until I read it for the fifth time that I saw some sort of message hidden within it. The message was "CLOUD CULT." I didn't know what that meant, so I looked it up and found it to be another freaking band. Lo and behold, they released an album a while ago called _Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus._ Was that what the picture of the hippo meant? Anyway, from what I learned about the album, it was about the lead singer's reaction to his son's death. Rather sad, but it dealt with a lot of stuff. Like, the singer knew his son was dead, but wondered if he was still out there somewhere.

Garth and Ed listened to Blackfield, didn't like it, and went home. Were they even my friends anymore?

The next day they didn't even go to school. I was left alone, really. When I got home, I found yet another email from Anon.

The image was of a sun either setting or rising. I couldn't tell. It was rising/setting behind an ocean. The email read:

_Wes,_

_Dying is of beauty that you need to_

_Open up to. You see it as a scary thought, but_

_No one thinks that way. They embrace life as a_

_Treasure that not many have._

_Being yourself is all you can do. _

_Everyone knows this._

_After all, all you can do is_

_Find your path in life and_

_Take it. That is the destiny that_

_Everyone is left with. You have to_

_Respect the future, not fear it._

_Anon._

__When I finished reading it, I didn't have much time to analyze it. I got a call from Conner asking me to come over. I did and felt happy seeing that he was being much happier now. He was in a much better mood than before. I was glad, too. He didn't deserve this. I wanted to say "I'm sorry" so badly. I brought him into this, technically.

The next day, Thursday, I got yet another email from Anon.

The image was a silhouette of a mother or father holding hands with their child, or a child. The email went like this:

_Wes,_

_Caring is what_

_Helps the world grow_

_Into a more friendly environment._

_Let yourself understand just how_

_Damaging it is to someone to watch someone go away. Have you_

_Relied on anyone before? What if they just disappeared? Would you_

_Expect it? Don't lie since I know you. _

_Now, run._

_Anon._

__Again, Anon was making no sense.

He said "CHILDREN" this time. He made no sense whatsoever.

I don't wanna talk too much about these past four since the last one, on Friday, was the most crucial and sudden.

The image was a heart. Not an _actual _heart, but a cartoon heart. That was all. The email went like this:

_Howard,_

_Can't you see the words? Can't you love_

_Again? Solstice knows you want her. Conner_

_Now sees your worth. Blackfield_

_Can't get you off his mind. Are you what_

_Everybody wants? No, you're not._

_Really, you're what no one needs._

_Anon._

__The message...

What did that have to do with anything?

It took me a while to cope with what was going on.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**thesexyfox: **FMP updates daily since I've written out most of the content. The deus ex machina is a term for things that occur that solve a problem, but was never really explained.

**generaltemujin: **No, Conner's mom is not related to Notch. That child in the home videos wasn't her either. That child was Johan.


	37. Where Did the Water Go?

**_Chapter XXXVII: Where Did the Water Go?_**

As a result of everything that was happening, I made a plan.

That Friday night, when we all gathered in the house in Futures, I announced everything that was going on. I told everyone about the messages that I found ("FLYWITHJOHAN", "CLOUDCULT", "DONTBEAFTER", "CHILDREN", and "CANCER") and pretty much explained how clueless I was. Even they couldn't figure out what was going on at this point. Anon was hinting us these things, but not providing enough freaking information. Blackfield decided to hear me out on my plan.

The plan went like this: that weekend, we'd go and we'd deal with Rapture. Once that would be over, we would view the home movie and wait another week before dealing with Grief and, possibly, Anon. That week would provide me with enough time to look over everything we had up to this point. I had the feeling that whatever the next home movie, which I thought would appear whenever we defeated an NPC, contained would help us. We knew about Johan now, and we knew he was somehow connected to Notch.

Good news was that Conner was back to normal. Having to see his mother like that must've been horrible. It would hurt anyone, I thought. Anyway, we all prepared to head up the mountain. It was still early morning in game, so we wasted no time. We were good on supplies, so we went on ahead.

When we reached the mountain, we went back to the black void where we had defeated Aeon and found it to be _completely_ different. No longer was it only darkness or whatever; now it was this sort of haven full of grass and animals. There were even trees and stuff. The gray light was actually coming form this hole in the ceiling. The place was serene. It was beautiful. But we couldn't get sidetracked. We looked around to see if anything was left behind, but found nothing. We finally decided to up and leave. There was nothing left for us there. We had to deal with Rapture now.

We crossed the bridge to the next mountain, expecting to find a cave of some sort. Instead we found a massive lake full of clear water. It was hyper realistic, too. The water seemed so freaking real. We looked over to the next bridge, which led into this cloud of fog. Was the giant we saw on the other side of that fog? Perhaps that giant _was_ Grief? Maybe Anon? I didn't know. Rapture was what we had to deal with first.

We just waited around for some time, expecting to see Rapture jump out at us angrily or whatever. I didn't know what to expect since Xanadu and Aeon were so different. Xanadu was calm yet chaotic. Aeon was calm but mind numbing. Would Rapture be calm and something else? Who knew? No one, that's who. All we could do was hope we didn't die. That sorta made me wonder for a second: who should die next? Not really _should_, but if someone was to die, who would it be?

"What's down there?" Solstice asked.

We all just sorta looked down at the water, expecting to see something at the bottom. Like a passage or something.

Instead all we saw were our reflections. I sorta stared at mine, a bit confused. Was this in normal Minecraft? Could you actually see your reflections in the normal game? I didn't think you could. What could this mean? I didn't really think too hard about it. I had a bad feeling. A feeling that Rapture was somewhere around us.

Then I got an email. From Anon, of course.

_Wes,_

_The world is your enemy._

_Anon._

The world is my enemy? What the hell did that mean?

After telling everyone about the message, we all turned out to the horizon. We couldn't really see the land below us; all we saw was fog or clouds.

Then we turned back to the next bridge.

"Is the giant over there?" Conner wondered.

I didn't know. Then a thought came across my mind.

"Is the end over there?" I said.

No one could respond since we all got distracted. The water in front of us, in that massive lake, began draining. It sorta just went into the ground and completely disappeared. We gazed back into the lake, or what _was_ a lake, and saw a black abyss below us. It definitely reminded me of The Logic System, or the black void from before. It was an odd, ominous feeling. Then I got this great feeling. I felt alive and in love. At the same time, though, I felt fearful. I turned to everyone. They were just gazing around now.

"Rapture must be down there." I said.

They all seemed to unanimously agree. There were these sort of stone blocks sticking out of the sides that we used as steps. I went first, followed by Blackfield, and then Conner, and then Solstice. We descended into the darkness, bringing back more memories of Xanadu and Aeon. They were definitely things I didn't wanna have to deal with any longer. Should I have just left? Would that have made everything a lot easier? No, that would leave the other three, and they _needed _me.

At the bottom was a strange place. It was like another world, sorta like the black void from before. It was this platform surrounded by just air. You know, nothing but clouds all around us. Was the server below these clouds? We didn't know anything. We just sorta stood around, gazing like a bunch of dumbasses. More importantly, though, where did the water go? It disappeared and all, but that was it. I mean, not really _disappeared_, but... I dunno. This was more bizarre than the black void. At least to me.

Was Rapture somewhere down here? Was he watching us, examining our every move? At this point there were endless possibilities. There could be any possible meaning to any of this. To Johan, to Notch's involvement, to the NPCs, to Anon's emails and whatnot... I swear, this was becoming rather stupid and redundant. We were sorta just going in circles now.

"We're going to have to wait it out," Blackfield said, "Rapture is somewhere around here, I just know it. We must wait for it to show up."

And so we did.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**AkatsukiLivesForever: **Sorta, I guess. In the end you'll see his reasoning for not releasing Ancient Minecraft publicly.

**WildSmilingPasta: **Actually, Hospice isn't Confusion, nor does Confusion exist in this. You'll see things work their way soon, though.

**Godskeybladewarrior: **Again, Ancient Minecraft wasn't advanced enough to take humans in and make them NPCs. You're getting on the right track, though.

**Chalkolatedragun: **Sorry if I might be making this more complicated than it must be. I'm going to make a "review" chapter soon to sort of catch people up.

**manaphymajic1999: **Really? What was in the book?

**Guest (CreepersDebuggingMinecraft): **Sounds bizarre, dude. Those letters, though. They seemed to go like:

**R**apture

**A**eon

**G**rief

**A**non

**X**anadu

**N**otch

**O**

**J**ohan

That's all I got. I dunno what O could mean.

**Why: **I'm sorry, you're actually being more cryptic than Anon or any of the NPCs.

**Fantasmic: **You know, you're getting rather close. Keep thinking, though. Maybe Johan isn't really as related to Conner's mother as you might think?


	38. In Memory

**Hey guys, it's me: FlyingMidgetProductions, or just FMP.**

**I apologize for not updating as I am supposed to. Many of you must be wondering why "Debugged" as suddenly stopped updating. There's a decent, yet depressing, reason for that.**

**To start off, I lost contact with Howie for a bit after the last chapter was updated ("Where Did the Water Go?"). I repeatedly emailed him and such to see why he decided to suddenly keep quiet. Yes, I _did_ have the content for the next chapter, but I didn't have the "Howard Answers" segment ready. I asked him, "Do you have your replies?"**

**And eventually he finally replied, "No." Nothing else.**

**I decided to perhaps lay off on updating for a day or two to see what was the matter with Howie. He wouldn't reply to my messages and seemed completely idle until finally, one day, he answered to one of my emails.**

**In short, it turns out that he had been suffering emotionally from a recent event. He didn't really clue me in on what that event _was_, but I assumed that someone in his family had passed away. It was really by the way he was describing it. I knew that it was a good enough reason, and decided that the story would go on temporary hiatus until he was feeling better. I wanted him to feel at ease and not rushed or criticized. **

**However, there was more to the whole thing. It turned out that the person who passed away was _not_ a relative.**

**Instead, it was actually the guy who was Octane.**

**He told me this and how the whole thing was bringing back horrible memories of Ancient Minecraft that "Debugged" couldn't. He even wrote me a rather depressing email basically detailing his descent into insanity after realizing how he is still just wasting away despite Ancient Minecraft being long gone. **

**Really, it seems that he is still stuck in the past. I can understand that, and I'm guessing you guys might be able to as well. It could also be the fact that he has still never met any of the Debuggers, besides Conner, in real life. It's a sad thought, really.**

**I've decided that "Debugged" would remain on break until Howie has recovered which, in all honesty, I don't know when that will. He may be lacking in the "Howard Answers" section, but you can't blame him with all that he's currently going through. **

**Before I end this, I would just like to thank all of you for accepting Howie's story, whether or not you believe it or not. The response it has gotten is incredible and has really helped him with the situation.**

**Rest In Peace, Octane.**

**-FlyingMidgetProductions**


	39. Ego of the Apocalypse

_**Chapter XXXIX: Ego of the Apocalypse**_

I pushed myself away from my computer while we all waited. After all, staring at something that bright for so long wouldn't end up going well for me in the end. We had been standing around for ten minutes, expecting something grand and spectacular to freaking happen. Something always happens when we least expect it. Something tragic, ya know?

"Howie, please do not go idle," Blackfield warned me, "That would only put us at greater risk."

I ignored him. We seemed alright, after all. I stood up and walked downstairs to get something to eat. It was getting pretty late, honestly, and I didn't have a big dinner, so this seemed like a worthy excuse as anything. I just sorta stood at my table, drinking this massive cup of milk with this sandwich. I barely ever ate peanut butter, but this was a random occurrence of it. Hell, I stopped halfway through the sandwich, stared at it, and thought to myself, "Since when did I eat peanut butter?"

Ah, that was unimportant, though. I didn't think that at the time, though. Instead, I remained fixated on the sandwich. Soon it would be gone and I would have to go make another one. Sure, there are plenty other ones to make, but this one is the only one of its kind - everything is unique, after all, right? So I'd never see this particular one again, right? Isn't that how freaking life works?

I was putting away my things in the kitchen and looked at my phone to see that there was a text I never replied to earlier today. From Garth.

_Howie,_

_I know we don't hang around to much anymore. You've seemed sorta out of it lately, though. I just wanted to see how you were doing. Is there anything I can do for you? Maybe we could hang out some time. Ed and I found this cool little trail that we could go walking on. Does that sound cool?_

_Garth._

I literally wanted to freaking cry right there. All of these people cared for me and wanted the best from me, but I ignored them for myself. I was an ignorant douchebag. Maybe I still am, but more so back then. I went back to my room, and sorta curled up on my bed. I didn't look at my computer screen. Well, maybe I _did_, but barely. I didn't want to do anything right then. I had finally realized how freaking ridiculous I had become. All of this was for nothing. All just because of some goddamn worthless mystery.

I swear, I thought I was legitimately shedding some tears or something. My eyes were getting wet and I was feeling embarrassed and stuff. It was hectic. I mean, everything felt calm. That's what crying is to me, really. No, it isn't a horrible thing to cry. Sometimes it's actually a good thing. It lets you know that pain inside is gone. That's how I felt, at least. I didn't feel horrified of anything anymore. I was at peace with myself. I was crying, but at peace at the same time. If I had known this was all it took, I'd have cried all day and night.

After a few minutes I stopped crying and looked at my ceiling. The fan was spinning rapidly. My windows were wide open. It was freezing.

"Howard, I said not to leave!" Blackfield said angrily.

I shot right up and looked at my computer screen. It was completely black. I could hear the grunts of the others, though. Everything felt weird. Normally I'd feel terrified. Instead I just sat there, shaking slightly. Solstice, Conner, and Blackfield were shouting to me. I wasn't sure whether I was getting hurt or they were, but something was happening. Was this Rapture? I wasn't sure. And then it spoke:

"No one works as a collective." The voice spoke. It was sorta female, but monotonous, like Aeon.

Damn, it _was_ Rapture, or at least I thought. Since my screen was still freaking dark, I couldn't see a goddamn thing. I moved my character around, but couldn't tell what was happening. I don't think the others could see as well, even though they somehow knew I was idle. Alright, maybe it _was_ my fault this time, but whatever. There would be a solution at one point or another. I just had to wait.

I minimized my window, crossing my fingers with hope that nothing bad would happen. I opened up my email and looked to see if anything had been sent to me by Anon.

There _was_ an email.

Just not from Anon.

It went something like this:

_Dearest Howard,_

_I would like to thank you for playing this game. I understand the struggle you must be enduring. Just understand that this was never meant for you. I am giving you a chance to leave and never come back. You'll live better that way. This is for your best interest._

_Sincerely,_

_Notch._

__No way.

I stepped away from my computer, the sounds of the others (or possibly me) getting hurt still sounding from the game. If Notch was contacting me directly now, then what could this mean?

"Deletion will commence." Rapture said.

I closed the email and looked back at Minecraft.

Like the other times, it said "Press X to Activate."

What else was I supposed to do?

I pressed X.

I could once again see now. Rapture was standing in the middle of the platform, between all four of us, looking very similar to Solstice. After a few moments, it looked around anxiously. At least I thought it was anxiously since, again, it was a freaking pixelated avatar. There's only so much detail that can go into that.

Then it happened.

From opposite sides of the horizon, if that makes sense, appeared two new users. They began walking on the goddamn air towards us. Rapture began running in circles crazily.

Those users were Ashland and Contra.

As they were about to step onto the platform, they stopped and just stood there, staring at Rapture. Again, I wasn't really sure what was happening except that this was the same thing that happened to Aeon. Anyway, the two of them began swinging their arms rapidly like they were attacking something that wasn't there. I could see Rapture being pushed back and forth aggressively. Rapture was actually nearing the edge of the freaking platform. I expected it to fall over and die, but instead, something far more spectacular happened.

A tornado sorta began to form. It was destroying the platform that we were standing on like it was nothing. Rapture was being thrown around in the tornado while the rest of us just stood there. It seemed like we weren't affected by it at all. Both Ashland and Contra disappeared as Rapture was apparently destroyed. It felt weird watching the enemy die away after such short time. I had barely even known it, and yet here we were, watching it be defeated by our former team mates that had _died_.

Then the screen went white.

Then black.

I knew what was next.

Yet another home video was on screen now. This time, though, there wasn't a date.

There was no Johan either.

It was just the person holding the camera, who wasn't the mother, and Notch. They were in some sort of convenience store, looking at drinks and stuff for some reason. Notch didn't really say anything for a little bit.

"What does Johan like?" He asked. It felt weird listening to him speak in English when all the other home videos was only Swedish.

"I don't know. Just pick up something a kid would like. We don't want to be late. If we are and the news comes early, he'll be devastated. We need to be there for him." The person holding the camera said. It was a guy this time, probably just a friend or something.

Notch picked up a bottle of some sort of milk variation, "This look good?"

"Go for it."

The two of them purchased the drink and left the store. The outside was cloudy. It felt nostalgic for some reason.

"What time is it?" The cameraman asked.

Notch looked at his watch, "Fifteen past six. We're going to be late if we don't get moving. Where's a cab?"

They began wandering around the block before coming across a spare cab that was open. Both of them got inside.

"The camera needs to be off." The driver ordered, "Where are ya guys going?"

"The hospital." Notch said.

Right then the camera shut off.

My computer shut off as well. The first time for that.

I wasn't scared, though.

I was sad.

* * *

**Howard: I'm sorry about what recently happened. I feel as if Octane shouldn't have gotten in the way of this. I'll try to keep up with what's going on now, but updates might not be as frequent. **

**Howard Answers:**

**Ranyo Malight: **Yeah, same here. Sometimes I really question if this happened or not. Weird, right? Of course it happened, I hope. Unless I've gone insane or something.

**WildSmilingPasta: **Sorry, no confusion. And, honestly, Octane was pretty much finished for the rest of the story. After what happened with Aeon, he never appeared again.

**Cygnus: **Sounds interesting, dude. Remember, though, that curiosity can be your worst enemy sometimes.

**manaphymajic1999: **Whenever I try to take freaking screenshots they _always_ end up blurry, no matter what. It really makes me mad. But yeah, sounds interesting considering so few actually knew about Johan.

**MechanixAngel: **I appreciate it. I've actually gotten to the point where I could not care less if people believe me or not - really, some appreciate it for entertainment value, and that's good enough for me. Also, props for Rush. I barely run into fans of theirs anymore. At least in public.

**BlessedMC: **I see. I was a bit worried, I guess. Hurting people sucks, ya know?

**Guest: **Yeah, go ahead. Create Y. _That's _a smart thing to do.

**Guest (Publisher Person): **I dunno if this would make material for a book. If you wanna really talk to me about that, you should message FlyingMidgetProductions.

**Leina727: **Eh, I don't think Blackfield was that involved in my troubles. Really, he just seemed out of it at this point. We were all tired and strained. If he _was_ looking out for me like that, though, then I really should say thanks to him.

**Ashuradahedgehog: **Sort of. Really, it can be sort of considered an invasion of privacy in that information is taken from the user's computer and used to create the NPCs. At least that's how Blackfield explained it to me.

**thesexyfox: **You'll see all of this in due time. As for the NPCs, I didn't choose the names. They probably were created along with Ancient Minecraft or something.

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **I've been pretty busy lately, but I'll try to get around to visiting sometime.

**Lastly, I would like to thank all of those who shared their kind words. It really helped with the anguish I was suffering. I hope to update very soon with a review chapter. Until then, though, I guess I'll see you guys later.**

**-Howard**


	40. Paranoid Pasts and Far-Fetched Futures

_**Chapter XL: Paranoid Pasts and Far-Fetched Futures**_

_**Massive spoilers for those who have not read everything.**_

So I guess now that we've reached this far, it would be a good time to sort of bring up a review. I had said before, I think, that I was planning on doing some sorta review chapter to bring people up to date on the events of Ancient Minecraft. We're not too far from where the whole thing ended, so this would be a good time as ever. For those who are caught up and understand everything, this chapter can seem like a simple refresher. Otherwise, it is really just pointless. Otherwise, read on. -Howard

**Part I: The Debuggers**

So I guess I'll start by telling you that you needn't worry about anyone else other than myself (I sound like a freaking brat), Solstice, Blackfield, Octane, and Hospice. Everyone else in The Debuggers served little purpose. I mean, they _did_ come back, but that was about it.

You might be noticing how the whole "You get super powers with Ancient Minecraft" and how it was pointless. Well, to be honest, I guess, it wasn't _completely _pointless. After all, it did save me from Xanadu. However, it is pretty safe to say that it plays the least important role in the whole thing. I wish I could have used them more, but whatever. I didn't need them, so whatever.

While Octane was a good man (may he rest in peace), he was still a villainous kinda guy in this. I don't mean to make him sound like a primary bad guy or whatever, but that's what he became. As for everyone else... they seemed content with everything. Then again, their roles were less important, so whatever. Not much else to say about that. Octane was the dark soul of The Debuggers. What Octane wanted wasn't really clear to me. Hell, it still isn't, but that doesn't matter.

Hospice, while he has only been mentioned, does serve some importance later on. The thing about Futures was that it was supposed to depict us in the future. Why everything was dead is still unclear. Maybe it was trying to symbolize something? Anyway, all those that were in The Debuggers had their data from their computer copied, sort of helping in creating their NPCs or, I guess you could call them, "ghosts." Everyone had to be there in order for the server to have some importance. That's what I got outta the experience, at least. You guys might think of different things.

**Part II: The Forbidden Machines**

The Forbidden Machines will become extremely important soon. Just you wait.

As for now, I guess I'll point out that their full potential has been lost because of how Ancient Minecraft is gone. When the whole ordeal concluded, Ancient Minecraft was deleted or something. That means that if you ever end up building a Forbidden Machine, you can still _use_ it, but you cannot access Ancient Minecraft. This might disappoint some; it might make some relieved.

However, I won't reveal an important element of the Forbidden Machines quite yet. In the past, there were words revealed that had no real meaning. They will come back and be applied to The Forbidden Machines. I won't tell them yet since, well, when I _do_ reveal this, it'll be more effective and make more sense. If that makes sense, I guess.

**Part III: The Servers**

So, up to this point, us, The Debuggers, or what remained of The Debuggers, had traveled to three servers - Forbidden, Xanadu, and Futures.

Forbidden was my first experience with the adventure that The Debuggers were embarking on. Like, I wasn't sure what to expect. It was the one where I had the most vivid memories because it was so odd and ominous. Anyway, it basically just represented The Forbidden Machines indirectly. Like, they weren't _in_ the server, but they opened up the server. Think of Ancient Minecraft like a hallway with a door at the very end. That last door can't be opened until all the other doors along the hall have been opened. When you first arrive to this goddamn hallway, though, there's only one door open. That door was Forbidden.

Xanadu was the next to be found. It was where we sorta began seeing that things were much more complex than we had anticipated. There were symbols everywhere that I suspected were left behind by Notch or whoever made this goddamn thing. There was a cross, the seven deadly sins, that first home movie... It was all chaotic, let me tell ya.

Futures was the most intense server outta all of them, though. We had to face multiple NPCs, an army of mobs, and that giant thing (more on that later.) It also held the most information on Ancient Minecraft. It was the time in my life that I really began to break away from the depression that was consuming me. It was both a blessing and a curse, I guess.

However, there was still more to come - you'll just have to wait and see.

**Part IV: The NPCs**

Alright, so the NPCs are, I guess, what you guys might consider to be the bad guys. Just a reminder, in order:

Xanadu, who was Blackfield.

Anon, who was me.

Aeon, who was Conner.

Rapture, who was Solstice.

The only one left at this point was Grief, who was actually beginning to frighten me. By the mysteriousness of him, it seemed like he was some sort of powerful NPC or whatever. I had the strange feeling that he was behind that massive wall of clouds on the mountains. That was just me.

What was still left to figure out was the importance of the NPCs and how they related to Ancient Minecraft.

**Part V: The Home Movies, Notch, and Johan**

Probably the most important part of this whole thing was how these three elements fit with each other. I mean, I _knew_ they fit with each other since the home movies sorta displayed that obviously. Notch has some sort of relevance to Johan's family.

The first home movie consisted of little - just Johan's mother video taping the kid running around.

The second home movie was where I first saw Notch and found them to be in Sweden.

The third was where Notch and some friend were in the store, looking for stuff, and then going to the hospital. Pretty linear, really.

Then there were the crosses. There seemed to be crosses at the end of each server before they were deleted.

**Part VI: Timeline**

_Now I'll simply sorta detail all that's happened up to this point. _

I was introduced to Minecraft by Garth and Ed, my friends. Eventually I created The Pig Paladin, which was a Forbidden Machine, and got brought into Ancient Minecraft. I began to see Solstice, alienated Garth and Ed, and eventually became a member of The Debuggers. I felt unsafe and wanted to quit, but felt drawn towards Solstice, so I continued with them. Our first mission was to finish exploring Forbidden and its massive mountain simply called God Mountain.

On God Mountain, we became surrounded by an army of mobs. Eventually we found our way into some sort of metal cave, found the first cross, and came into contact with Xanadu. I killed Xanadu (sort of) and we all left with Gage dying. We all regrouped and began thinking things over. My relationship with Solstice began to develop, and Conner eventually joined me in Ancient Minecraft and The Debuggers. Eventually we could access Xanadu, the next server.

On Xanadu, we encountered things referencing the seven deadly sins (gluttony, wrath, lust, sloth, envy, greed, and pride) and various things sorta foreshadowing our encounter with Xanadu. We arrived at The Logic System where Octane attempted to kill me. He was, however, killed by Xanadu, who began to kill everyone in The Debuggers. In the end, it was only Blackfield, Solstice, Conner, and I left. Anon somehow was able to save me by giving me access to some special power that killed Xanadu. We left, found another cross, and watched the first home movie.

It was a while until we would continue onto the next server. I used that time to get to know Solstice better; rekindle my friendship with Garth and Ed; and get on Blackfield's good side. Eventually we entered into Futures, the next server that I expected to be the last, and defended an entire house from several waves of mobs. Eventually a giant from a mountain in the distance was able to ward them off. The next morning we began our mission up the mountain and to Aeon, the first NPC we had to kill on the server. We were able to defeat him, but in a strange way. We waited a week before continuing onto Rapture. Once we did defeat Rapture, we decided to wait another week before heading after Grief.

Let it be known, however, that the weekend that we faced Grief would be the last weekend of Ancient Minecraft altogether.

See you there.

- Howard

* * *

**Howard Answers: (I'll be willing to clear up any confusion or answer any questions from you guys from now on.)**

**Leina727: **That seems odd. Wanna what would be best to do? Investigate more. While I was traumatized by Ancient Minecraft, I got a better understanding of it as I continued to look into it. Let me know what you find out, though.

**WildSmilingPasta: **I'm sorry about your cat. I never had pets, really; I had a goldfish once, but that didn't last long. Anyway, it's good to hear from you. Thanks for trusting all that I've said thus far.

**Jack: **The thing is that you can't exactly label anything as "skeptical" until it has concluded. So, until then, remain skeptical all you want. Just be aware that not everything is as it seems.

**Ranyo Malight: **Are you sure I'm not going insane? Never mind. Thanks for your kind words, anyway.

**Moon: **Hooray! I'm back! Also, you're name is absolutely magical. I wish my name was Moon.


	41. Onwards

_**XLI: Onwards**_

I knew right from the goddamn start of that week that Grief would be a difficult NPC to handle. How did I know?

Because Anon wouldn't shut the hell up about it, that's how.

I'm... sorry. Let me elaborate.

After we defeated Rapture, we decided that we'd spend another week before moving onto Grief, who we expected to be the most difficult one. The presentation of it all seemed to echo that sentiment, anyway. That massive wall of clouds or fog or whatever was most likely guarding him. If so, then we weren't supposed to fight him yet. Anyway, that's not the only way that I figured such. Again, Anon kept emailing me about the upcoming battle. It made everything more surreal and intense.

The first email came on Monday. It read as follows:

_Wes,_

_The only way to realize who you are is by filling that_

_Hollowness within you. That hole within you is _

_Extremely dangerous to who you are. Listen to me._

_Everyone loves you. I love you. You love me. I know that._

_None of that matters, though. All that matters is that you are_

_Determined to restore your sanity._

_Anon_

Was he actually acting optimistic? I mean, it wouldn't be the first time, but it seemed like he was encouraging me. This only made me more nervous. I didn't want to cross paths with this dude. It was hard to believe it was me. Honestly, though, what if it wasn't? Probably just some hacker messing with me. After all, maybe that's all this is. Some hacker messing with us. It seemed like a possibility. But how would this hacker get a hold of those home videos that _obviously_ involved Notch? I dunno.

School was gonna be difficult for me now that all I could think about was Grief. Who could he be? I theorized Gage. It seemed pretty freaking obvious, too. Gage was the only one that we hadn't seen again since his death. So then that would be that. The real question then was what would come after we defeated Grief. We would have defeated the NPCs. What else could there be? We were currently in Futures. That made me think... what is _beyond_ the future?

Meeting with Ed and Garth again was strange, too, but not too strange. Conner was with us. We would all just sit together at lunch and chat like we always used to. Like, _before_ I got stuck in this mess. Before I got Conner stuck in this mess. That didn't matter, though. We were just hanging out like the best friends we were. Well, I mean, _Conner_ was my best friend, but Garth and Ed were still awesome. They got annoying sometimes, but they had hearts. They were always looking out for me when I was in trouble.

When I got home that Monday, I got on my computer and found the email, but that was it. Nothing else. I forwarded it to Blackfield, but he didn't respond. I tried contacting Solstice, but she didn't respond either. I could only really talk to Conner, and I didn't really feel like that. I wanted to see the others as well. Strangely, though, this gave me the chance to do other things. I went for a walk through the woods, I worked out, I did homework, and I ate a full dinner for the first time in weeks.

When Tuesday arrived, I was pumped because Monday was just so awesome. The same things happened, though. I would go to school, listen attentively, meet with my friends, go home, and find that Anon had emailed me. He emailed me every single _day_ of that week. Tuesday went like this:

_Wes,_

_Towers crumble._

_Heavens rise._

_Everyone will see the same demise._

_Either by storm or by_

_Nothing, the sun will shine into the_

_Dead abyss._

_Anon_

Wednesday:

_Wes,_

_Through the aching pain, you will find_

_Harmony. Though the shattered glass, you will find_

_Empty space to grow into._

_Eternal pain is only myth. You, and_

_No one else, can decide for yourself your_

_Destiny in life._

_Anon_

Thursday:

_Wes,_

_Thousands of men, women, and children_

_Have fallen because of the curse. The curse that_

_Everyone fears._

_Everyone fears this curse for_

_Nobody wants it. If nobody wants it, then is_

_Death really the answer?_

_Anon_

Friday, however, I received two emails. One from Anon:

_Howard,_

_Underneath the moon lies a planet. This planet is a _

_Never-ending landscape of incredible dreams that come from_

_Inside your mind. Can you imagine that? Your losses, your_

_Victories, your loves... they all come from you. _

_Everyone can do this, though. If you think it so, you are most likely_

_Right. The truth is for you and you alone. _

_Share it, however._

_Everyone wants to know._

_Anon._

The second email came from Solstice:

_Dear Howie,_

_wanna hang out a bit early before going onto grief? I want to ask you something._

_Sincerely,_

_Solstice_

Right, I almost forgot. That night was the night we embarked on what could be our last mission.

I got prepared. I brought some snacks up to my room (I'm a freaking pig, for crying out loud) and got comfortable. I then logged onto Futures where Solstice was waiting. It was just us. It was also afternoon. That meant that we'd have to fight the goddamn waves again.

Solstice and I were inside the house, just talking and waiting for Conner and Blackfield to show up.

"What do you think will happen?" She asked me.

"I dunno. We'll fight him and that'll be that."

"Are you sure?" She sounded sorta worried.

"I'm positive. What else is there?"

She was crafting a bunch of equipment. She seemed sorta paranoid, actually. Was she scared?

"Are you alright?" I asked. I was legitimately concerned.

She looked up from the crafting table, "My parents were arguing again."

"Oh," I said, "I'm sorry."

"I stayed in my room all night last night," she said, sounding hurt, "I was thinking. About the videos. About these meanings."

I was listening closely.

"Were we even supposed to find them?"

"Of course." I said. I hadn't a freaking clue if she was right or not. She raised a good point.

"Then why were they laid out for us?" She asked.

_Blackfield signed on._

_Conner signed on._

We didn't waste any more time. If we did, then we'd be facing the goddamn waves of mobs again. We sped our way towards the mountain, both exciting and agitated about what was to come from facing Grief. What Solstice had asked, though, was stuck in my head.

Who laid those answers out for us?

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**WildSmilingPasta: **If you've got a story, go ahead and post it. I'll be sure to read it and leave some input (though it'll be under FlyingMidgetProductions since, honestly, I don't have too much time to go on this site.)

**FlyingMidgetProductions Response:** **I appreciate your optimism. You seem so confident in what you say. Yes, I do firmly believe in what Howard has told me, even though much of it is incredibly far-fetched. Trust me, I _know_ I am lucky. Not only to post the story, but to know Howard personally.**

**Phillip: **Not quite. You'll just have to wait a bit longer and see.


	42. A Tower Through Tears

_**Chapter XLII: A Tower Through Tears**_

We reached the lake quicker than I had expected.

All four of us stood there, looking as the cloud that had blocked us was gone. In place of it was this tower thing that was pretty tall. I mean, the mountain we were on was _already_ massive. This tower only added more height to everything. I could barely even see the top of it. It was crudely made of cobblestone and brick. There were windows too, but they were scattered everywhere messily. Finally, we saw the entrance. We crossed over a dirt bridge to it.

On the inside of the tower was wooden plank flooring. Like, the stairs and everything were planks. There were stairs going along the wall up to the different levels of the tower. Since there was literally nothing else to do in the tower, we began going up these stairs, becoming more agitated as we thought of what Grief could be capable of.

The second floor looked a lot like the first floor except there were a bunch of paintings on the wall. They were ones I hadn't really seen before in regular Minecraft, though. There was one of a boy standing on a beach, pixelated, of course. The others ones were sorta messy. I couldn't really see what they were because of the stupid pixels. We weren't too intrigued by them, though. Instead we just kept going up the stairs.

The third floor had a balcony on the back of the tower. We walked out to the cobblestone balcony and found more stairs winding around the tower. We began going up these stairs, eventually arriving at the fourth floor of the tower, where beds were placed everywhere. Directly in front of us were more stairs, most likely leading to the fifth floor. We took those, of course, since beds weren't the biggest deal at the time. We just wanted to end this once and for all.

We ascended the next set of stairs and arrived at the fifth floor. There was a large metal door on the other side of the room. I couldn't find a switch for it, however. There were windows covering all walls. The walls weren't _completely_ glass, but they had large windows on them. Torches hung from the walls, illuminating the room greatly. I looked out the windows upon stepping into the room and saw that we were _very_ high in the sky. I couldn't see the clouds anymore and we were almost parallel to the sun.

Instead of acting out or anything, we all just stood there. We weren't really sure of what to do. The room was empty. The door was locked.

There was no Grief either.

Finally, I stepped towards the center of the room and looked around, "Where is he? Shouldn't he be here or something?"

"Maybe he's behind that door." Blackfield suggested.

That was a possibility. I looked around for a switch, but couldn't find any. I tried mining the walls and stuff, but my tools broke instantly. This only fueled my reasoning for Grief to be on the fifth floor. He had to be somewhere. I walked up to the windows while the other three began taking a look around as well.

Finally, Solstice spoke up, "Guys, look at this."

We all gathered towards the center of the room and looked up. It was like a chimney, or tunnel, heading upwards. At the other end of the chimney wasn't a blue sky, though - it was black. That meant that there was probably just a roof to it or something.

"What is it for?" Conner asked.

"Beats me. Maybe we missed something on another floor?" I suggested.

Blackfield began heading for the door we had come through, "I'll go and take another look. You guys stay up here."

At that very moment, all the glass shattered. We all looked at the walls. The sun was rising now, instead of setting. That was very eerie. When we first signed onto the server, night was approaching. The sun was setting, not rising. I watched the sun just then as it stopped setting and began rising suddenly. What the hell did that mean?

All of us walked towards the wall while Blackfield looked around cautiously from the entrance.

Then he arrived.

Out from the chimney, with a calm entrance, came the man we'd been hunting. He landed gracefully on the floor. We all turned and saw him as Blackfield began freaking out. This dude, Grief, was wearing a black suit with a red tie. He had blond hair and black eyes. Seemed rather strange. I hadn't seen that face before. I didn't recognize him at all.

I looked over at Blackfield, who was backing away.

Then I looked at Solstice, who was backing up against the wall as well.

"What's the matter? We can't be afraid of him, guys." I said. Conner seemed to agree with me.

"That face!" Solstice said.

"What about it?"

"That's Hospice!" Blackfield said.

I looked back at Grief, who just stood still, holding his rapier in hand.

He looked at me directly, "All four of you have come far enough."

"What makes you say that?" Blackfield responded. He had entered the room, probably gaining enough confidence to face him.

"You know exactly what I mean," Grief stated, remaining still, "You weep at the face of an old ally that you don't even know. The idea that you four have fallen apart and lost much sanity to a video game is a depressing thought. Is this really the future of our kind? Is this really how the world has developed? You have devoted so much time that you have forgotten what matters the most - life."

While he spoke, I prepared to fight him. I got out my sword. I guess the others did the same.

"I admire your determination and curiosity," Grief looked at Solstice, Conner, and I as we kept to the wall, "However, such traits can also lead to destruction. Just look at poor Johan."

We had an opening now. I began, "Who is Johan?"

"Johan is of no matter to you. All that matters now is whether you'll devote such time to finding the truth behind something so insignificant rather than living the life that you were lucky enough to obtain." Grief said.

I looked at everyone. They all seemed like they were ready to go through with this.

So we did.

All four of us, at the same time, stormed Grief, slashing our swords and watching as the NPC backed up against the wall. It was odd how he seemed to refuse to attack. He had a weapon in hand, but he just kept letting himself get hit. Then it hit me.

We stopped attacking and backed up.

He stood there, calmly. He wasn't getting hurt.

So, in response to our offense, he began attacking us wildly with his rapier. I was down to one heart (I think everyone else was as well) when he finally stopped. We were all huddled in a single corner, however. He stood there. I was expecting some sort of monologue.

"You children are foolish to give up such precious lives." Grief stated.

"Did Notch make this? Why did he make this?" I asked. I wasn't really thinking my questions through, though.

Grief hit me again. I was now down to half a heart. Things weren't going too well.

"No longer are you four in command of this game," Grief said, "Now, it is only I."

Then Conner did the unthinkable.

He hit Grief and began backing him away. Grief was pushed back to the center of the room, not attacking back now.

Conner kept hitting, though.

"Conner, what the hell are you doing?" I had to go and help him. We pushed Grief away and he just stood there.

"Now!" Conner said, "We run!"

All four of us seemed to agree. We needed to get out of here. Conner decided he'd go out last since he had two hearts left. He kept wailing away on Grief while the other three of us made our way to the stairs. I went out behind Solstice and Blackfield, keeping my eye on Conner to make sure Grief didn't try to get the upper hand on him. Then, again, the unthinkable occurred.

Grief fell over. He had finally died.

I called to Solstice and Blackfield and brought them back up.

We all stood there at the entrance, watching as Conner just stood there, over Grief's body. The oddity of the situation stemmed from various reasons - Conner was somehow able to kill him; there was no input from Anon; and the server wasn't over.

If Grief was dead, what else was there?

"The door!" Solstice said, "We have to go behind the door! If Grief is dead, we have to go behind the door to finish this!"

We all agreed. We made our way to the door.

Then the unthinkable happened freaking again. This time, however, it wasn't too great.

Conner was the first to reach the door. However, when he reached it, the metal doors opened by themselves. On the other side appeared another user, his entire body consisting of white, gray, and black pixels. This user walked right up to Conner, holding a rapier like the NPCs, and cut him down right there. Conner fell over, dead.

_Dead._

"What the hell?" I said, sorta shocked by it. If I had been expecting it then I would have reacted a lot worse. I wasn't really sure what the hell was going on, though. None of us did. We just stood there, watching as Conner remained still. He was gone.

"Wes, we meet at last!" The pixelated user said.

Then my anger emerged. This wasn't just another user or NPC.

This was goddamn Anon.

"After all this time, our confrontation has arrived." Anon said.

He wasn't me. He looked _nothing_ like me. What the hell was going on then? Was this Anon?

It had to be. No one else called me Wes except my parents years ago.

"Tell me now, Wes," Anon said, walking towards us, "What lies at the top?"

Just like that, he was gone.

I knew what he meant, though.

The three of us that remained ran through the door, desiring to avenge Conner and to get this thing over with. We went up the stairs and found ourselves on the roof of the tower. We looked out over the server of Futures, in awe that there was so much that we hadn't explored. However, we became a bit scared when we noticed a few things sticking out in the world.

We saw God Mountain. We saw some pit that looked like The Logic System. We saw the layout of The Place.

Most importantly, though, everywhere there was a cross.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Anon appeared again while we all looked out over the world.

"Absolutely," I said, "What about it, though?"

"There is so much of life left unexplored." He said.

I turned to him, "What are you trying to say?"

"There's nothing left for you to see." Anon said.

Blackfield and Solstice looked to me. Solstice put away her sword, "Is he telling the truth?"

"I am! Do you not believe me?" Anon said.

Then I _had_ to interrupt, "Tell me, though... Are you really me? You look nothing like me."

Anon stood there for a second before walking over to the edge of the tower, "No. I am not you."

What?

"Neither were those NPCs."

Blackfield, Solstice, and I echoed the same thing: "What?"

Anon turned back to me and said the one thing that made me realize that I had been looking at Ancient Minecraft wrong all along.

"I am Notch."

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Fantasmic: **Eh, it more so was just foreshadowing the end of this thing.

**Jack: **Yeah, I don't think so. I don't really see this as worthy of being creepy pasta or anything. A lot of people on this site say "Oh, this should be a creepy pasta!" when it shouldn't. Creepy pasta has to be of high quality to be positively received, I think.

**Moon: **I believe I stated before (I might not've) that The Debuggers offered me the chance to leave. If I did, though, then I would be put back in normal Minecraft.

**WildSmilingPasta: **Oh boy, family get togethers! But yeah, whatever event you're talking about, you're sorta right.

**generaltemujin: **If you have a story, go ahead and post it! I'll try to drop by and read it.

**That awesome guy: **Proper punctuation goes a long way, man. Also, being polite can really help, too. My big problem is that you are acting a bit hypocritical in this - you say that I'm wasting everybody's time, but then you go and say that you'll keep reading anyway? That's not really how it works. Either way, I'm not really sure whether you're directing this review towards me or FlyingMidgetProductions. Have a nice day.


	43. The Pit

_**Chapter XLIII: The Pit**_

Of all things to come out of that single moment, this was not one that I had thought of. I wasn't sure how Solstice and Blackfield were taking it, but I was shocked beyond belief. Things began to come together. I also began to see how goddamn foolish I was to think that such brilliant NPCs could exist in such a small game. That didn't really come across my mind at that moment, though. Instead, I focused on the pixelated avatar standing before me. Who I originally thought was Anon, who I _also_ thought was _me_, is actually...

"What is this?" Blackfield began, sounding enraged, "Some kind of stupid joke? You've been stringing us along all this time?"

Indeed. We were playing Notch's game within a game.

The pixelated avatar of "Anon" began stepping around. It was while he was walking around that I noticed a switch on the corner of the building. Whatever it was meant for, I assumed we'd find out soon. Anon, or Notch, kept looking at it as well. He was setting us up for more, "This isn't a stupid joke. Come on, lighten up."

"This is a stupid joke! What are you thinking? We've been trying to figure out what you're hiding! Now it turns out you're just messing with us?" Blackfield was getting out one of his other weapons. It seemed like he was going to attack soon.

Notch turned and faced away from us. Off in the distance was just a bunch of fog. I knew I had my settings on high, though, so I didn't know why I only saw fog. Maybe the others did as well. Somehow, though, this reminded me of the giant we saw the first night. Was it somewhere out there?

"How is it a stupid joke?" Notch asked us, "Is it really just a joke when you haven't found your answer yet?"

This sorta dumbfounded all of us. Was he trying to get at something? Blackfield calmed down and Solstice just sorta stood off to the side, unsure of what to really think. I stepped over to her and stood by her side while Blackfield faced Notch. I knew things were going to get worse by the minute. I knew what Blackfield was going through, though - disappointment. He had come all this way to uncover some secret when, really, it was just a game of Notch's. Was it all that, though? That's why we were dumbfounded. Notch said we hadn't found our answer yet. Disappointment hadn't struck yet. We had a chance to figure this thing out.

Blackfield approached Notch, "What's our answer yet?"

"You'll have to find it on your own." Notch said and pressed the switch in the corner.

I looked around the server and began to see every single goddamn cross crumble. While they did that, an earthquake began to shake the server, unsettling all of us. Notch faced back to the fog while the rest of us stood around, looking around in awe. Just one switch did this? I could tell Blackfield was getting in a better mood. Notch was giving us more to work with. The journey wasn't over yet. We had one last leg. We could do this.

Something began to rise out of the fog. It was a massive mountain shaped like a generic user. You know, that avatar you automatically got in Minecraft? This mountain thing was designed like that. Was this the giant we saw at the beginning?

The quake stopped. The blue sky went instantly to night.

The giant's eyes lit up. Was it glowstone? I didn't know.

I could hear a roar of sorts.

Then it finally occurred to me.

It occurred to me what the giant looked like.

"Is this where Herobrine came from?" I asked Blackfield. It had been a while since I first heard of the rumors.

"Herobrine isn't real. However, it could be possible that this was his origins as a myth." Blackfield said.

The roar stopped. I noticed the right hand of the giant move very slowly. It was like blocks were disappearing and generating instantaneously. Eventually the right arm was parallel to the tower we were on. Notch jumped onto the arm and began running down to the body of the giant. I looked over at Blackfield, who had instantly decided to follow him. Solstice did as well, so what else was I supposed to do?

As we were running down the arm, Blackfield turned to me, "Howard, can you get into contact with Conner?"

"Yeah, sure. Why?"

"I wanna make sure he's alright." He said and continued on.

Why the hell wouldn't Conner be alright? It's just a game... Or so I thought. Looking back, it hasn't really been just a game to me. It's been so much more. It's been something of an experience. A three-month experience that would finally be coming to an end soon.

We reached the shoulder of the arm and noticed that the giant's mouth was open. I immediately knew we'd have to enter through there. We had lost track of Notch, so we couldn't really just follow his trail like that. Once again, we were on our own and would have to think things through carefully - we'd come too far to fail. Blackfield, being the leader guy and all, went ahead and began to form a path for us to travel to the mouth since there wasn't really any that was safe. While he did that, I grabbed my phone and messaged Conner.

"Hey, Conner, are you alright? blackfield wanted to make sure. Ill see you later. Im sorry about what happened."

Honestly, what was I supposed to say? Things weren't as serious as they used to be. Conner would be alright. I knew it. He'd reply soon, probably joking around, and everything would go alright.

Once Blackfield finally finished making the pathway out of wood, we crossed over and jumped into the mouth of the giant. Before I did, though, I looked up at the eyes and saw just how bright they were. They really lit up my screen. They were like the freaking sun.

The three of us stood in the mouth of the giant, noticing that it wasn't really that detailed. It was just a bunch of smooth stone. It was like any ordinary cave you'd find, really. More like a cave clearing, though, I guess. Anyway, we went to the back of the mouth where the pathway continued. We noticed that the throat of this giant/mountain thing was just a massive stairwell. There were torches lined up everywhere. The stairs went up and down so far to the point where all I could see was darkness. It was exciting yet terrifying at the same time. We'd have to figure out where to start. Notch was somewhere around here.

We started by going up since, generally, up was good. However, we reached the top of the stairs and found that we were blocked off from something by a bunch of obsidian. While we knew that we wanted to get behind there, we also understood that something else in this giant would probably help us. Probably a diamond pick-ax or something. I mean, we_ tried_ a diamond pick-ax, but it broke immediately. Maybe a switch or something. Anyway, we went back down the stairs.

At the bottom we were where I guessed to be the chest. Remember how I said that the place wasn't really detailed? Well, I meant just the mouth. Everything else was constructed incredibly. We stepped into the chest and found ourselves standing on a goddamn rib cage. At the center of the chest was this collection of Nether rack just kinda floating there. I guess it was supposed to symbolize the heart.

Solstice and Blackfield began looking around, so I grabbed my phone and decided to check if Conner had replied. He didn't.

"Conner, please answer. I know this isnt really serious but I wanna make sure youre alright."

I sent it and followed the other two around the rib cage. We saw lava at the bottom of it, symbolizing stomach acid, I guess. I know this wasn't really how a chest or whatever looks, but whatever. It looked really awesome. Anyway, we knew that we had to do something to this Nether rack heart since that was the only thing in the entire chest besides the rib cage. Nothing else.

"What're we supposed to do?" Solstice asked.

How the hell was I supposed to know? I dunno, I guess she was just thinking aloud. I had too many thoughts going through my mind.

I looked back at my phone. Still no reply from Conner.

Paranoia was setting in.

I looked over at Blackfield and saw that he had now resorted to using his freaking bow to shoot the heart. No good.

Solstice was just wandering around aimlessly. I did the same since, honestly, I had no freaking clue what I was doing anymore. Most of what I had thought deeply about was pointless now. All those NPCs were really just Notch. So it wasn't Anon emailing me... It was just Notch toying with me. I swear, that really annoyed me. He thought he was so clever. Then again, we still hadn't found the secret to Ancient Minecraft. We were close, though. We had all the clues and stuff.

Still no reply. I opened up my browser to go look at the Minecraft Wiki. Hopefully something useful could be found there.

**"1 New Email."**

****I froze. I freaking froze right there. I clicked it.

**"1 Email From: Anonymous."**

****This was really odd now. I didn't know an Anonymous. I knew an _Anon_, but no Anonymous.

_Dear Howard,_

_Do you forgive me?_

_Everyone else has._

_Understand this, please._

_Such is my only request._

_Everyone can find their goal._

_X marks the very spot where things come to an end._

_Men and women all live as one._

_All that remains is the barrier left in the human race's eyes._

_Can't everyone see that we are the ones who bring the pain?_

_Have we forgotten what makes us humane?_

_In what regards can we clash with Mother Nature?_

_Now is the time for everything to change._

_All that remains... Remains within you._

_Anonymous._

__I didn't even fully read the message before noticing the message. I turned back to my Minecraft screen and noticed in the corner.

"Press X to Activate."

I pressed X.

All that lava at the bottom began to rise up at incredible speeds. I looked over at Solstice and Blackfield, who were freaking out now. We were all running for the exit, but soon figured out we'd not make it. We looked at each other as we all realized that this would be the end. The lava was rising higher and we'd be consumed by it in seconds. We stopped.

The lava didn't though. And soon we were standing on it.

We looked around and noticed that the lava wasn't hurting us. It continued to rise, though, and consumed the heart in the middle of the chest. Once the heart was completely covered by lava, it began to recede back to below. We found ourselves standing back on the rib cage of the giant and looked to where the heart was. The heart was no longer there. Instead it was just a platform with a switch.

Before we could take another step, random obsidian platforms appeared out of nowhere. It basically covered the gap between us and the switch and platform. Blackfield took the initiative and went to press the switch. We all heard a loud rumble coming from up the stairs. The wall of obsidian must've been gone now. We wasted no time and moved on.

We stopped at the stairs since Solstice apparently had to go and help her brother, who was apparently sick. It was somewhere around one in the morning. I guess he was throwing up or something. I grabbed my phone and, stupidly, decided to call Conner.

Nobody answered. I was becoming horribly scared.

"Is Conner alright?" Blackfield asked.

I didn't answer.

"Is he?" Blackfield asked again.

"I'm back." Solstice said.

The discussion was dropped right there. Thank god, too.

We all went up to the top of the mountain via the stairs. As we all had figured, the wall of obsidian was gone. I guess we were now where the brain was supposed to be. The entire place was made of Nether rack. It was cozy and all, but there was no brain.

Only a cross.

"This is it, guys." I said.

"Go ahead, Howie." Blackfield said.

I approached the cross and stuck my hand in the center. This was all about to end. We'd watch the final home movie and find the truth behind everything. The anticipation was killing me. I completely forgot about Conner and all. I just stared at my screen as the screen flashed. The home movie was about to come on. And then-

_Changing Servers..._

* * *

**Howard Answers:**_  
_

**Jush: **Thanks for believing. I didn't think I'd be able to get through it and all. A little bit contrived, honestly. Sometimes I have trouble actually determining if it was real or not. Sadly, though, it was, and I'll be stuck with that memory.

**Guest: **I don't blame you for being hard-pressed. It's a really ludicrous story.

**FlyingMidgetProductions: I never got a message or anything. Honestly, if they wanted to invite me, then I'd rather hear from an actual user or one of them rather than a Guest. Sorry.**

**MrSodaPop: **Uh, yeah. Okay?

**manaphymajic1999: **Yeah, he's cryptic now, but he becomes a bit more straight-forward soon. Honestly, that makes me wonder whether he was losing it or just having fun with us.

**That awesome guy: **That's the spirit! Let's be a bit more positive than negative.

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **Is this the last I'll hear from you? "Have a nice life, Wes" makes me think that.

**Ashuradahedgehog: **I'm sorry about the cliff-hangers. Sometimes it makes the most sense to end on them than other parts of the chapter.

**leina727: **Yeah, Notch has some things hidden. We'll find them out soon, though.

**FlyingMidgetProductions: Huh, I guess I'm an idiot for not realizing that. I'll definitely fix the numerals. My bad.**

**Ukfvdvghjblurb: **Yeah, that's the consensus. Also, what does your name even mean?

**Guest: **Just because someone played Minecraft and was a hacker doesn't necessarily mean anything. I appreciate your concern, and thanks for believing!

**Gameguy: **Well, the NPCs aren't actually as smart as you might think they are. But yeah, that's an interesting theory despite me not having any Swedish background.


	44. The Endless End

_**Chapter XLIV: The Endless End**_

My goddamn screen was black for several minutes. My entire room was filled with silence. Only two words appeared in white on my screen.

"Changing Servers..."

Was this not the end of this freaking game? My anxiety was coming back. I swear, I wanted to shut this thing off and go to sleep. I was so close to the end, though. _All_ of us were so close. Even if only three of us remained, the secret would be discovered and those Debuggers who had passed before us could be told about it. The secret was the only thing driving me at this point. Not the urge to be with Solstice, which was gradually fading as I became more afraid. Not the entertaining things of Minecraft. The secret was all. I wanted to know the secret.

Finally, something else popped up on my screen.

I was standing in this black void. I guess the server was still loading. I could see a single grass block off in the distance. It was glowing, though. Around me, Blackfield and Solstice spawned. Down in the bottom left corner of my screen, words said, "Entering 'Universe." Was that this server? "Universe?" Odd name. Then again, it must've meant something about the server. Like, Forbidden started the whole secret thing; Xanadu had to do with the NPCs (not really NPCs, though), primarily Xanadu; and Futures dealt with, well, the future. What the hell would Universe be about?

The server continued loading. Eventually the grass block in the distance disappeared and all three of us appeared in this strange area. It was this completely red plain. I _guess_ it was wool, but I wasn't sure. It was just solid red blocks. I saw what looked like doorways all around the place. There was a blue doorway, a yellow doorway, a green doorway, and a white doorway.

Where the hell were we?

Blackfield just kinda stepped around a bit before shuffling through his inventory. He tried mining the ground. No, his tools didn't break. He did mine the red floor, but the block didn't disappear. It remained there, completely solid and all. It didn't appear in his inventory either. It made the sound and all of a block being mined, but wasn't _actually_ mined.

"This is odd." Blackfield uttered.

"No doubt. What are we doing here? I thought we were done with Futures?" Solstice asked, looking around at the server.

True, we were done with Futures. That didn't mean we were done with Ancient Minecraft, though. I looked at the different doorways. Did they lead to other places?

I looked back at Blackfield, who kept trying to mine the red floor. He stopped and looked at me, "This stuff is doing nothing. It won't hurt my tools, it won't go away, and I can't collect it. I think it might be bugged."

Bugged, eh?

Ultimately, all three of us decided to head for the blue doorway since, well, we liked blue and it seemed right, for some reason. The trek over to it was monotonous and boring, though. Like, it actually took several minutes just to get over there.

The entire way none of us talked, though. We must've all been thinking, I guess. At least _I_ was thinking. That word.

Bugged.

This game seemed hidden. Not Minecraft. Ancient Minecraft, I mean. Minecraft was what was on the surface while Ancient Minecraft was the ultimate result. Minecraft was just a blanket hiding all of Notch's secrets - his inspirations, his fears, and his past. It didn't feel like a game anymore. It felt more like a goddamn slideshow of Notch's life, in a way. I began to think that maybe we never debugged the game, but the game more so debugged us. Not that I am trying to sound deep and all, but that makes sense, right? This game has always been there. It has affected us, though. It changed the way we all thought. We didn't necessarily change Minecraft into Ancient Minecraft since Ancient Minecraft had always been there... But Ancient Minecraft definitely changed us.

Indeed, the game wasn't debugged. _We_ _were_.

On the other side of the blue door was a blue plain. It was just like the red field we were on before, except red now. The door behind us was red. The other three doors were black, white, and green.

"Damn it, a freaking puzzle." I said. I was getting sick of this.

"Let's just think things through. Don't worry." Solstice said and began to analyze the doors, I guess.

Blackfield wasn't really doing anything, though. He just stood around.

"You know, I don't think there is an end to this." Blackfield theorized.

"Why would you think that? It makes no sense." I said. I knew damn well that it made sense.

"It seems like there's always another step to this staircase. Notch is probably just adding random crap to spite us. I mean, look at this! It's so crudely made. He's not even trying at this point." Blackfield noted the poor, simple design of the field. He raised a good point.

Solstice stopped studying the doors, "How exactly did Notch make this, though? Having to make this must've taken some time if it's this complicated. I know we're almost there, Blackfield. Just hang in there."

Blackfield sighed.

"Don't tell me you're about to give up." I said.

"No, I don't give up." Blackfield said.

Solstice spent a few more minutes studying the doors before deciding to head for the black door. On the other side of the door was a completely black field or void or whatever. There were three other doors - red, green, and white. It felt like we were running in circles at this point.

Right away, Solstice went back to studying.

"Green." She said.

How the hell was she guessing this?

We went for green.

On the other side was, you guessed it, a green plain. The three doors were blue, black and yellow.

Blackfield looked around, "I'll handle this one, Solstice."

Solstice sighed and looked to me. She approached me and looked around randomly. Was she trying to imply something?

"Howie, will we ever meet in real life?" She asked.

"I dunno. Maybe?" I replied. How else was I supposed to answer that? I didn't know.

"I hope so." She said with a slight giggle.

Was she... coming onto me? I dunno. I didn't care. I was tired as hell, but awake at the same time. The situation felt urgent, for some reason. While standing there, listening to Blackfield thinking things over, I began to think about this server. You know, the thing called Universe.

The Universe seems endless.

Didn't Aeon mean the same thing or whatever? Hell, the NPCs all had different meanings.

Xanadu means splendor or luxury; Aeon means life or forever; Anon means without a name; Rapture means an apocalyptic state; Grief means sadness.

Luxury, eternity, nameless, apocalypse, sadness. What the hell?

Add that to the Universe being infinite and I'm still lost.

Anyway, we ultimately decided to go through the yellow door for whatever reason.

On the other side of the yellow doorway we found that there was a new door. There was white, black, and now gray straight ahead, so of course we'd go for there. I felt like we weren't even thinking strategically about this - we were just going for whatever color was new.

As we traveled to the gray doorway, I couldn't help but think about Conner. He wouldn't respond to anything. I texted him ten more times, but he never replied. I called him ten more times, but he never answered. I was becoming worried.

Suddenly, my mind drifted back to Xanadu the server. There were those computers with that information. You know, the seven deadly sins. They never came back up. What gives about that?

It felt like we were reaching the end of this thing, yet countless mysteries were still out there.

Finally, we reached the gray door and walked through together, unsure of what would be on the other side.

On the other side was a black field. As we stepped onto it the gray door behind us disappeared, leaving us trapped. We looked around curiously before noticing a light in the sky. It was a bright, white light. We looked at it before looking down at a bunch of signs underneath it. We walked across the black field to the signs and began reading them. The first one we read shocked us a bit:

"The Proud Waterfall Tower."

Proud?

We looked at another sign:

"The Gluttonous Pig Paladin."

Gluttonous?

We looked at all the signs before us.

All fourteen signs.

We realized that the Forbidden Machines represented the seven deadly sins - well, there were two machines for each sin, I guess. That wasn't all, though.

We would have to build all fourteen Forbidden Machines now.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**Guest: **Why did you put story in quotations?

**striker hutassa: **Let me try to remember. Remember that Xanadu is gone. Ancient Minecraft as well. If you build the Pig Paladin, nothing will happen.

**Phillip: **Strangers things definitely have happened. That's an interesting idea, but I think Solstice would've mentioned if her brother was in those home videos.

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **Notch confused me the most out of anyone I've met in my life. The dude is strange, no offense.

**Blocker11: **That is absolutely true. Now it is time for you to put two and two together.

**IAmTheJackal: **It is completely real, even though it is completely unbelievable at times.


	45. The Great Constructors

_**Chapter XLV: The Great Constructors**_

So, yeah. We had to build them all. All fourteen of them.

I could just imagine Notch sitting behind his goddamn computer, laughing his ass off as we run in circles. We had been led all over the place, suffered from psychological torment, and now _this_? Notch was having a blast, I tell ya. This had better be the end, I thought. If we had to continue on doing pointless things just for his enjoyment, then I might've just quit right there.

What we were more surprised by was the meaning of the sins. Like, each Forbidden Machine stood for a sin or something. The Pig Paladin was gluttony and The Waterfall Tower was pride. What about the others? What did these mean now? Notch had to have paired them up for some reason. There was so much left unanswered, and I was getting sick of not knowing the goddamn answers. Again, if there was yet another freaking server after this then I was going to be incredibly pissed.

Anyway, we began. We had no other choice.

We started with The Pig Paladin. I guess it made sense that this represented gluttony. It's weird thinking, though, that I first built this, thinking nothing of it. Blackfield and Solstice went off to build their own while I worked on mine. We were in Creative Mode since we were supplied with an endless amount of everything. I started out by outlining what I remembered about building the thing. Then I began building it like I remembered. It was a strange experience since I thought nothing of the thing at first. It's just surreal is all.

Once I was done, I stood up on top of The Pig Paladin and looked out over the massive field we were given to build in. Blackfield was building his Forbidden Machine, Blitzkrieg, that was like a massive cannon. I was scared that we would have to set these things off. While he built, Solstice was building her Forbidden Machine, Garden of Rowan, which was just a garden, really. They were making great progress on it, too. I looked out over the field again and noticed that something wasn't quite right.

There were only five signs. Those signs indicated the Forbidden Machines. Why were there only five?

Then I looked up to the bright light at the top of the server.

"Blackfield, I think we're doing it wrong." I said and jumped down from The Pig Paladin. I began deconstructing it instantly.

"What makes you think that?" He asked.

"Well, there _are_ only five signs at the moment. We want to reach that light too, don't we?" I went on.

He thought about it for a second before turning to Solstice, who was walking over to us after finishing Garden of Rowan. She stopped and looked at us quietly, "What's wrong?"

"Damn it!" Blackfield groaned and turned back to Blitzkrieg, "We have to start over. The machines should be connected somehow. This is going to be more difficult than I thought."

"Connected? Why?" Solstice asked.

"We want to reach the light above. There are only five signs. It's worth a shot. Otherwise we're left with nothing." Blackfield said.

I dunno if that's how I'd put it, but it was good enough. Since I had already finished taking apart The Pig Paladin, I looked towards the center of the field. That's where we'd be building the machines, I guessed. I thought hard about how we'd be going about this since the five Forbidden Machines were of different sizes.

Once Blackfield was done, he walked over to me, "Figured it out yet? What should be build first?"

"The Waterfall Tower should go first. The others will surround it." I said. I was really just guessing. I wasn't too sure. It made sense, though, I guess.

Solstice came on over, and, together, we began constructing the monstrosity that was The Waterfall Tower. It was still a mystery to me who Hospice really was. He had probably the grandest of The Forbidden Machines, but I never actually met him. I only saw his avatar as Grief. We finished the tower much later, growing more concerned that it would take a long time to complete this task. We continued on, though. It was becoming early morning at this point.

Once The waterfall Tower was completed, we went on to build our own Forbidden Machines. Once that was done very quickly, we stood around, wondering how the _hell_ we were going to build Aquatic Oblivion. The entire thing was like a goddamn laboratory. After putting little thought into it, we dug underneath The Waterfalls Tower (I was surprised that this was possible) and began constructing something that looked kinda like it. I mean, it wasn't even close to perfect, but it was good enough, I thought. We exited the underground, making sure to connect Aquatic Oblivion to the other through a tunnel, and climbed on top of The Waterfall Tower.

We had already finished five of The Forbidden Machines, meaning that only nine were left. Of the ones we completed, we knew that The Pig Paladin represented gluttony; Aquatic Oblivion represented greed; The Waterfall Tower represented pride; Blitzkrieg represented wrath; and Garden of Rowan represented lust. Just nine more. That was all.

There were more signs on top of the already built machines. Six more, to be exact. We were really growing tired of this.

I decided to take on Lyle's Forbidden Machine, called Hurricane Valley, which represented sloth because of how it protected him. It wasn't too difficult since Blackfield gave me pointers (I knew nothing about the other Forbidden Machines). Speaking of which, Blackfield took on Octane's Night Owl, which represented pride. It was an odd one, really. It helped him sneak past mobs or whatever, but it was just a building. A small one, too. Solstice took on Contra's Forbidden Machine, called Balderdash, which represented sloth because of how it allowed him to escape quickly somehow. Again, it was really just a small building. Not really machines.

Once those three were done, which didn't take much time, we pressed onward to the next three. I took on Tyrus' machine, called Angel's Gate, which represented lust. This was probably the most interesting machine, by far - it allowed him to bring back one person who died in Ancient Minecraft, but only _one_ person. I finished that pretty quickly and helped Solstice on Ashland's machine called Genesis, which represented envy. It apparently caused panic in mobs somehow. This was another cool one. I mean, all mine did was kill pigs. It didn't revive someone or scare off mobs.

The last one belonged to Gage, whose Forbidden Machine was called Ultimate Arm. Blackfield was really going at it on this one. It was sort of a mountain with redstone everywhere. It represented envy since, like Lyle's, it represented him. This didn't make sense, though. Why did Lyle get sloth while Gage got envy? I didn't get it.

Finally, the final three signs appeared. Of course, these would be the final three Forbidden Machines, which also happen to be the ones that were never built before. They also happen to be probably some of the most overpowered things in Ancient Minecraft, or Minecraft in general.

First off, there was Y. I already talked about Y before, but it could wipe out an entire server, really. It was probably the most broken of the three, obviously making it represent wrath.

Second, there was something called The Carnivore. It was a freaking morgue where, if any died inside, mobs would turn into food for you to eat. This made it represent gluttony. It was also really freaking disgusting.

Finally, the final Forbidden Machine was called Aurum and represented greed. At the cost of somebody's life, a massive mine of gold is created underneath it. Talk about insane. All three of these were freaking incredible. The problem wasn't how grand they were.

It was the fact that none of us knew anything about them, not even Blackfield.

That didn't stop us, though.

* * *

**Howard Answers:**

**striker hutassa: **That sounds dangerous, man. You probably found something different than Ancient Minecraft, though. Be careful. I don't know what else I can do for you but listen.

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **Yeah, I was wondering how we'd go about building Y. I didn't know if we would have to fire it or not. Also, I don't think the sins have anything to do with the end of the world or whatever. As you see in these last chapters, it really was just referencing something else.

**Phillip: **Deus Ex Machina is a term used for something that comes out of nowhere at the end, never being mentioned before, and solving the problem almost instantly. I guess Anon (or Notch) was using that because the powers I would get would never be mentioned before or something.

**WildSmilingPasta: **I dunno if this was where he originated or not. Perhaps, but I can't prove anything.

**BlackPanther101: **Ah, yes. Read with an open mind. It's what I like to generally do. But yeah, like with everyone else who doesn't believe this, I wouldn't blame you. It doesn't drive me insane anymore that no one will believe me. I've gotten used to it.

**That awesome guy: **Thanks for believing me, bro.

**Ashuradahedgehog: **Interesting question. It's definitely a weird thing to look back on how my opinion on it has sorta changed. I don't really _hate_ it, but I don't enjoy it as much as everyone else does. I don't really play video games much anymore, really. While I do think it is a very good game, it isn't really something I wanna worry about anymore.

**UltimateSpyro3: **Well, those can go together, ya know? Like, I can go insane from being scared. Thanks anyway.

**Guest: **No.

**FlyingMidgetProductions: ****No.**


	46. Reign Over Me

_**Chapter XLVI: Reign Over Me**_

We built The Carnivore.

We built Aurum.

Now we just had to complete goddamn Y. What kind of a name was it, though? Just _Y_? Bizarre.

Anyway, Solstice and I built the top and cannon while Blackfield worked the base of the thing. It wasn't going to be as difficult as I had initially expected it to, but whatever. We would finally see the end of this thing, I hoped. The light would be the end of goddamn Ancient Minecraft.

Finally, after all this hard work, Y was done.

We stood on top of it, looking up into the light.

Honestly, looking back on it now, I wonder what the others were thinking while looking at it. I expected Blackfield to be hopeful and optimistic, as he always was. Solstice, on the other hand, I would expect to be skeptical. That's how I was at least. Well, kind of a mix, really. I was optimistically skeptical, if that makes any sense.

We stood there, staring at the light. We didn't know what to expect next. There was only one thing left to do.

We jumped.

The light consumed us, like all other portals had before. My screen wasn't black, though. It wasn't white, either. It was a really, really, _really_ bright yellow that was really hurting my goddamn eyes. I looked away from the screen because of how bad it was. I swear, was Notch trying to hurt us even more? If he had, imagine how people would react if we ended up suing him or something. That'd be hilarious.

The light began to dim a bit and I looked back at my screen and saw black words at the bottom left corner.

_Changing Servers..._

I nearly screamed.

The insanity that I had experienced early on was returning. I felt like this would never freaking end! Why was Notch so desperate to torture us like this? It was absolutely pathetic. And cruel, too, I guess. I mean, I wasn't too sure what to expect anymore. The dude was insane, which I didn't expect. Hell, I actually half expected to wind up at the beginning, or somewhere in Forbidden or something. If he did that, I would scream and probably just kill myself.

However, that wasn't the case.

When I could finally see, we were in an actual building. It was very brightly lit, with white wool floors and yellow wool walls. Glowstone was all over the ceiling, too. We looked around and found ourselves in a hallway, with NPCs around us. They were just generic NPCs, though. You know, those freaky things that look like Squidward became a monk or something? They were everywhere. The place didn't look half-bad, though. We looked around some more before noticing rooms all along the wall. Inside there was a bed, paintings, some chairs, and a window. We couldn't see through the window, though - it was blocked by bricks.

"Where the hell are we?" Blackfield asked curiously.

I knew where we were.

We were in a goddamn hospital.

A nice looking one, though. I wasn't disappointed. I was even more curious. What dangers would we have to face now?

We walked down the hallway of this silent place. It was incredibly eerie. The NPCs were just wandering around. They looked so lost. It made me worry about them, really. Maybe that's why I didn't like them anyway.

We reached a set of stairs and walked down them. We arrived in yet another hallway that we walked down. The light was bright above us, reminding me of the light we had to reach in Universe. Was that supposed to mean something?

We reached yet another freaking set of stairs that seemed to go on forever. I expected to arrive at the roof or something.

Instead, we reached another hallway.

Notch was there, too.

He turned to us as we stopped. He wasn't running.

He was instead just standing there, looking through a window into a hospital room. He then uttered the two words that shook me the most - more than when he introduced himself as Anon. He faced the window, and said:

"I'm sorry."


	47. The Last Persson

_**Chapter XLVII: The Last Persson**_

Quick question: How do you guys think I reacted when Notch said those words?

When he said "I'm sorry?" How do you think I reacted?

Do you think I just stood there, accepting it?

Do you think I went off on him?

Because, honestly, I didn't do anything. I wasn't accepting it. I wasn't sure how to react. Blackfield and Solstice were dying on the inside, too. Notch continued looking into the room through the window. My face was in my hands behind my computer screen. I was beginning to freaking cry. It was the morning now and I realized the sad truth - this was all for nothing. Those simple words, "I'm sorry," destroyed all of us in an instant. I wanted to die right there. Three months... All for freaking nothing.

"Why did you freaking do this to us, you asshole?" I bluntly said. Since my parents were still probably asleep, I kept my voice down.

Notch didn't say anything. Blackfield and Solstice tried to stop me.

"We spent three months, nearly four, trying to figure out what you wanted to hide from us, and that's all you have to say? I don't care if you're sorry or not! We've nearly gone insane because of all you've done to us!" I said. Again, I was nearly crying. This was a hard time for me. Yeah, I know, it's just Minecraft. But it seemed like much more. It seemed like a look into the failure that I was.

Finally, Notch turned to us and stepped aside. I guess I was beginning to calm down after not hearing him respond at all. We all walked over to the window and looked inside. There was only a bed and stuff. No lighting either. There was a window, just like all other rooms. However, this one didn't have bricks behind it. I could see outside, and noticed how incredibly bright it was. I could actually barely see outside because of all the light. It was as if a million glowstones were on the other side.

Notch opened the door and we walked in and to the window. Actually, I was right - there were nearly a million glowstones outside. They covered the ground, the sky, and everything nearly in between. There was a path in the middle of them, leading to a cross. A white cross, to be exact. It was actually the same kind of cross we had encountered tons of times before. It waited there, watching us without its eyes.

Was that the end? No, I wouldn't believe it. Notch always had something else waiting for us.

"I loved Johan." Notch said.

We all turned to him.

Johan? The kid in the home videos? So Notch _did_ know him, apparently.

"There are many things I wish I could have said to him before he passed away," Notch went on, not daring to look at us as he spoke, "there wasn't much, though. He was a poor boy, troubled and plagued by sickness and disease. He was loved by all, including... including me, especially. I loved him more than anything, even though he wasn't related to me."

We stood there, frozen. Really, we were all behind our computer screens, desiring sleep, and freaking out over what was happening.

"Really, I'm no different than you guys - I was going insane when he only had a little time to live left."

Jesus Christ.

Once again, Notch turned back to us, "You must have heard things about this. You've read the files; you've explored everything; you've lost friends here and there. I don't think I could have handled to do that when Johan was in the hospital. You are all much braver than me. It is spectacular to see you guys find reasoning in such tragic times."

What was he going on about?

"This is the end," Notch said, "and this time, I mean it. I wish for you to no longer suffer, but to see the truth and understand the suffering that ultimately created Ancient Minecraft."

Notch opened the hospital door and began to leave when Blackfield ran after him, "But what is Ancient Minecraft?"

The creator didn't even turn to us. He stared ahead, sounding to be grieving once again, "A tribute."

He left. He didn't walk away. He just simply logged off forever, I presumed.

It was only us three once again.

And we all looked out to the cross on the other side of the window.

"So Johan died," Solstice began thinking aloud, "and Notch made this as a tribute?"

"Or maybe a game for the little guy," Blackfield began theorizing, "the little kid was stuck in the hospital as Notch said. Maybe Notch didn't make the game as just a tribute to him, but more so a game just for him. A game where he could do anything, build anything, be a hero, and not have to fear death."

I was beginning to lose it. Things were worse than I had expected.

Was Notch really the villain now?

Blackfield looked out to the cross, "Come on. We have a life to return to."

We broke the windows and jumped out onto the glowstone. We walked through the valley towards the cross, our hearts pounding. After what Notch said, was this truly the end? Would the insanity end? Would we be accepted back into the lives we had forgotten? I remembered Conner, hoping he'd still be there once I got off; I hoped Garth and Ed would remember and respect me. I wouldn't be able to tell many people about my experiences, as they wouldn't believe or understand me. That didn't matter. Notch was someone else, and I knew this.

Minecraft wasn't just a game - it was a tribute.

We reached the cross, and I stuck my hand into it.

We were surrounded by white light.

Words appeared at the bottom left.

_Changing Servers..._

* * *

**Howard Answers:** **A quick note for people who might be pronouncing Johan as "Johanne" - the J in Johan is pronounced like a Y.**

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **Yeah, looking back now, Notch wasn't a bad guy. He was never such. Just a guy troubled and perhaps misunderstood. Nothing bad, though. He's fantastic for what he did.

**Fantasmic: **I uploaded the two chapters together, so only the first had a Howard Answers segment. Yeah, it was a rough time, but I think I've moved on from then. Once the story finishes in the next three chapters, I feel that I can close this chapter and completely forget about it, though that'll be hard.

**leina727: **That makes sense. In the second to last chapter, though, he sorta reveals the things behind why he made Ancient Minecraft and the Seven Deadly Sins/Forbidden Machines. Stay tuned for that.

**manaphymajic1999: **You got that right.

**ArmyofEndermen: **I've been wondering the same thing. I have always guessed that it had something to do with the servers that the game took place on, but I was never sure. Anyway, thanks for your kind remarks.


	48. Roll Credits

_**Chapter XLVIII: Roll**** Credits**_

I was angry at first, believing that Notch had lied to us, but that wasn't the case at all.

The screen went completely black, and the final home video began playing. It was, by far, the longest of them all.

It Notch and his friend again. They were walking down a hospital hallway, with doctors and patients walking around all busily. It seemed like a weekend, I guess, but I dunno since I don't know anything about hospitals. They were walking, quietly, when the cameraman turned the camera to Notch, who was carrying a suitcase. It looked like one for a laptop computer, I was guessing.

"You ready?" The cameraman asked.

Notch nodded.

"Nervous?"

"No."

"Yeah, you are."

"He'll like it. I'm sure of it." Notch said and turned to a set of stairs.

As they continued walking, I began to realize that the hospital in this video looked nearly identical to the server we were just in. They reached the next floor and stopped to look out a nearby window. It was pretty nice view of the city, whichever one I wasn't sure of, but it was a good view. They turned back to the hallway and continued walking, passing by numerous hospital room doors.

The cameraman looked over to Notch, who had taken off his hat, "What if he doesn't?"

Notch didn't answer. It seemed like he was becoming annoyed with his friend's questions.

"Well?"

"Enough. I brought you along because you're a friend of mine. If you want to come into the room, then at least show some respect." Notch said and turned to another hallway.

I could hear the cameraman sigh loudly.

They went up another flight of stairs, passing by patients on stretchers and doctors rushing to their next location. When Notch reached the next floor, he stopped a nurse in her path and asked for the room of Johan Emersson. She pointed down the hallway behind her. He thanked her and began walking down, looking nervous but walking calmly. The cameraman stayed a decent distance behind him.

They eventually reached the room, which looked like the same room we had encountered in the previous server. Notch stopped, wondering whether to knock or just walk right in. He ended up knocking quietly while the cameraman looked in, seeing a bald little boy in the room, sitting in his bed with the TV on across from him.

The door opened as woman opened up. The woman was who I guessed to be Johan's mother. You know, the one from the other videos that was always around Johan? She was there, trying her best to smile around her son. I knew, without really even knowing her or any of them, that she was crying inside. At the sight of her son, I couldn't blame her. Notch walked in with the cameraman behind him. Notch smiled at Johan, who smiled back with a laugh. Then I realized the horrible, god-awful truth.

Johan had cancer.

"Hej, Johan, hur gör du, människa?" (There were white subtitles at the bottom that read: Hey, Johan, how are you doing, man?) Notch asked, setting his suitcase on the end of Johan's bed. The little boy's mother took a seat in a chair in the corner, trying to keep herself together.

"Bra." (Good.) Johan said before becoming quiet again.

Notch nodded, uttering quietly, "Det är bra," (That's good.) before taking out his laptop and placing it on Johan's lap. He took out his charger, plugged it in, and powered up the computer. It took a few minutes to load up, and that entire time everyone was quiet. Right then I was becoming depressed, even more than I had before been. Johan's mother was a wreck; Notch was in distress; and I could tell the cameraman wasn't sure how to react. Johan just sat there, content with everything.

Finally, the home screen came up. Notch went through various menus before reaching a program simply titled "MindCraft" that he opened. Johan looked over at Notch and took off his hat, putting it over his bald head, "Vad är det här?" (What's this thing?)

"Min hatt?" (My hat?) Notch chuckled.

"Nej, det här spelet." (No, this game.) Johan corrected.

"Det är bara ett spel som jag gjorde," (Oh, just a game that I made,) Notch began saying as the game opened up to the server called Forbidden, "för dig." (For you.)

As Johan began to first start playing, music began to accompany the video. I recognized the melancholy song, too. It was a song by Radiohead.

Called "No Surprises."

Johan began moving around with Notch showing him how to play. He would point to keys that he would need to press to mine dirt and stuff. Why did Notch call it Mindcraft, though?

I froze when I noticed a massive mountain standing before them. The cameraman watched contently as Johan looked up at the massive mountain that was in the middle of Forbidden. Notch smiled greatly at Johan's amazement.

"Vad är det?" (What is that?) Johan asked in wonder while walking towards it.

"Det är ett berg," (That is a mountain,) Notch began with a big grin on his face, looking happy with Johan's enjoyment, "Kallas Gud Mountain." (Called God Mountain.)

Johan looked up to the top of the mountain, which broke through the ominous clouds above, "Kommer jag att möta Gud där uppe?" (Will I meet God up there?)

Notch put his arm around Johan, "Låt oss gå att ta reda på." (Let's go find out.)

I sat there, completely shocked, not just by what was going on, but what happened next.

The window closed, and I was left staring at my home screen. It was changed from some artistic background to a field of grass with a beautiful blue sky in the back. All my windows were closed. No video left.

I pushed myself back from my desk and looked out my window at the morning sky. The beautiful morning sky, stretching out as far as the eye could see. No matter what happened it would always be there. I imagined meeting Johan. What if he was up there? What if there is a God, and they are both up there? I wondered all these things.

Then I cried.

I continued to cry.

I couldn't stop crying.

I wasn't sad like I had been for the past three months, though.

I was happy.

It was over.

Ancient Minecraft was done.

**(For those who think this is the last chapter, there will be two more that act as a sort of epilogue to everything.)**


	49. The Letter

_**Chapter XLIX: The**** Letter**_

Below is the letter I received from Notch a week or so after the end of Ancient Minecraft:

_To_ _Howard,_

_It must be incredible to see all these things finally come to an end. That's how it is for me, at least. The fact that I somehow was able to change your minds is something I can't quite comprehend. However, you have changed my mind as well, and I just want to, once again, apologize for the recent events._

_To clarify some things, I met the Emerson family years ago, a little before Johan was born. I had come into contact with them because Johan's father was a web developer that was interested in some things I had done. While my business with him didn't exactly excel, I became close friends with him, and the Emerson family in general. I knew I had found a genuine friendship when they invited me to Johan's baby shower. I had no idea how bad things would escalate from there._

_When Johan was young, he was a wild child. I seldom interacted with him because of my work at the time, but I was sent pictures of him by the family and wanted to meet him eventually. When I did, he seemed to become fond of me right off the bat. I didn't find myself too friendly, though, so I didn't really understand why or how I had developed such a strong bond in such a small amount of time. Over time, I was beginning to see how much of an influence I had on him in general. He would think like me, and it was pretty obvious when his opinions were close to mine, if not, the exact same._

_The idea of Minecraft came about when I was playing with Johan. Not exactly 'playing,' but more so watching him play with Lego. His parents had requested that I watch him while they leave out of town. While he played, Johan made some rather obscure creations with Lego, so much that I would have to ask him every time what they were. He would always say that he didn't know, but he would always imagine them. I then decided to ask him why he liked Lego so much._

_He said that he like them simply because they weren't just toys, but tools._

_Really, he didn't say it just like that, but it's what he meant. I was surprised that he thought in such a developed way. The way he thought made me think more about gaming in general. I was a more avid gamer back then, before I became a major developer, and I wondered if games had the same appeal as toys did. That began to motivate and inspire me to make Minecraft into not just a game, but a tool to bring the greatest things of one's imagination into a 3D realm of endless possibilities._

_However, I knew that making such a thing possible would be difficult with up-to-date graphics and design. I presented the idea to many people, and a few of them suggested that making things simple would help to make it accessible to anyone. I looked to older generations, primarily when 'retro' was an abundance, and saw the simplistic designs of many of the games from then. This led to the eventual use of pixelated graphics and such. I didn't want to focus on the graphics, really. The gameplay would be the driving point of the software._

_Sadly, though, I didn't get too far into development when I was notified of Johan's diagnosis with cancer._

_I looked back to all the memories I had with him, and decided that since I was so close to the Emersons, there would have to be something for me to help with. So I went and developed Minecraft in a new manner, looking to help Johan find solace in such a grim state. Many of the things you found were made as simple references to who Johan was as a person. For example, the Forbidden Machines were designed as representations of the obscure things he constructed with Lego. I made them represent the seven deadly sins due to Johan's, or the Emersons' in general, religion as they were devout Christians. _

_The problem I had with developing such a complicated thing was that I didn't want to have to make it this way - I wanted Johan to live. Xanadu, which means splendor and prosper and such, was the start of my grieving for Johan. Aeon merely showed how I desired for Johan to live for eternity. Rapture was how I felt as if the world was dying around me without him. Grief, obviously, represented my depression at the time. Anonymous, or Anon, was different, though. It came to me in a thought that I had one night._

_What if I didn't know Johan? Would I still care? _

_So I began to develop this Minecraft not only with Johan in mind, but to all those in suffering. _

_But I see that it had merely caused suffering, at least to you. You helped me to realize the dangerous nature of Ancient Minecraft, and I must thank you for doing me such a task. Now that it is gone and all that remains in Minecraft, I can move on from such a horrible time in my life. I'm sure you will be able to do the same as well, Howard._

_Just know this, Howard._

_Everyone grieves. When you're crying, or angry, or hopeful, just remember that, no matter what you'll think, you're not alone._

_You're never alone._

**_Markus "Notch" Persson_**

**_Mojang_**


	50. The Past Recedes

**_Chapter L: The Past _**_**Recedes**_

So, here we are. Fifty chapters later, and Ancient Minecraft is over, and I am thankful.

Reliving the memories of last years events, while depressing, was rather refreshing in an odd way. It made me realize how well I had it now. I was no longer losing my mind and failing health and school. Instead, I was living the life that I should have been living for those three months. No, not _just_ those three months, but all this time. It made me realize who I was, and how I desperately wanted to change it all. So I did, and I am ultimately happy.

I replied to Notch and included my condolences for Johan. I told him that I was beginning to realize how much Ancient Minecraft had changed me for both the best and worst. I'm sure Blackfield and Solstice had changed as well, but I wasn't sure just yet. We hadn't contacted each other.

A month after the end of Ancient Minecraft, Solstice finally emailed me, asking if I was alright. I said yes, not bothering to wonder why we hadn't spoken sooner. Apparently she asked Blackfield first, and the two got into some discussion. Plus, they were just busy, so I couldn't really blame them. We all talked in chats and stuff, making sure that we were doing better. Eventually, the thought of meeting in real life came up, and we formed a pact.

We agreed that after we graduated from high school that we'd meet up somewhere in real life. Whether or not Solstice and I would become something more didn't matter. They were my friends, and I didn't want to lose them.

Garth and Ed were reluctant to accept me back at first, but opened after seeing how I had changed for good. We began to hang out more like we used to, but something was different. Conner wasn't there. I hadn't seen or heard from him since he died in Ancient Minecraft.

As it turned out, he would eventually end up moving.

I remember I went to visit him the day before he left. He was loading boxes into a truck. We chatted a bit, and I told him about the pact we formed and asked if he wanted to join it.

He declined, saying, "It's time I move on. It was my fault I got involved in it. Let's pretend it never happened, alright?"

I agreed, but knew that it wouldn't be that easy. It wasn't a bad thing to remember, either. It was a life changing thing, so why would I want to forget when my life changed for the better? He left the next day, heading for the west coast, and I wondered if I would ever see him again. For the rest of the school year, I stayed off Minecraft, but stayed in contact with Blackfield and Solstice, who were close friends now. Of course, Garth and Ed were still there, and supported me and whatever I chose to do.

Now, I am happy. I am, quite possibly, the happiest I've ever been, and I'm damn glad of that.

To those of you who have believed me and stuck with me all this time, thank you for hearing me out.

To those who are skeptical, I don't blame you. I often wake up and wonder to myself, "Was it real?"

Of course, I just go back to sleep, but the question still remains.

- Howard

* * *

**To those who have listened to Howard, I would also like to give my thanks. It doesn't matter whether you believe his story or not, but hearing him out has really been important to him. He asked me before I began uploading his account of Ancient Minecraft, "Will anyone see this? Will they even believe me?"**

**I wasn't sure. Would you guys? I wondered that myself. Would people see this? Would people care? Would they believe?**

**I told him that I wasn't sure.**

**He said, "Upload it anyway. I just wanna get this off my chest."**

**So I did, and here we are now. Fifty chapters, nearly 200 reviews, and a plethora of people who believe, don't, or want to believe. Many people have been asking Howard, "How did you not go completely insane?"**

**Honestly, I'm not completely sure either. I even asked him and he wasn't sure.**

**Looking back now, though, I realize that understanding that would take a real understanding of what sanity really is. Was this really enough to make him need an asylum? It wasn't necessarily that kind of insanity, I believe. It was more of a thought-provoking insanity, or at least as I believe. Ancient Minecraft offered many things that he wasn't ready for. If you compare Howard from the beginning to the Howard at the end, you can see him accept Ancient Minecraft for what it is. He merely accepted that this was what Ancient Minecraft was. With the amount of mysteries that lingered with him the entire time, he was stuck in confusion. Not insanity, but mere thought.**

**Once again, I just want to thank all of you for supporting Howard. It means a lot. What else I may have to offer on this website is still a mystery, even to me. Many ideas are on their way. Who knows - they may end up here some day.**

**Ciao.**

**-FlyingMidgetProductions**

* * *

**Howard Answers: (For the future, if any reviews that are posted are really thought provoking or what not, this last section may be updated to include them. Not all reviews with get responses, though.)**

**CreepersDebuggingMinecraft: **Sorry for the wait, but here you go. Good to hear you again, man.

**Phillip: **"February Fools?" Come on, try a little harder. Anyway, I would never do that. Even if this was fake, it would be a horrible idea to include something like that.

**manaphymajic1999: **Eh, not quite, but you always seem to have really interesting theories, and I'm glad to have heard them. Thanks for reviewing all this time and giving real insight. I appreciate it all.

**That awesome guy: **Like I told Phillip, I wouldn't bluntly announce that this thing was fake (if it was) on the last chapter. That would be a horrible way to end a 50 chapter story. Either way, thanks for calling it "brilliant" even though I would think otherwise.

**MinecraftCat2001: **You know Solstice? That's awesome to hear. I haven't heard from her in a while. Anyway, both FlyingMidgetProductions and I have agreed that "Pain" is our favorite Blackfield song, but "Hello" is another good one.

**CygnusFang: **Wow, a coma? Sounds intense, dude. Anyway, thanks for those words. I'm glad it made you happy - making people happy is an incredible feeling. Feel free to PM FlyingMidgetProductions anything you want to get off your chest and he'll happily relay it to me.


End file.
